Inklings [9780547386508]

Overview

When Jeffrey Koterba was six, he started drawing his first cartoons, painstakingly copying from the Sunday Omaha World Herald’s funny papers and making up his own characters. With a pen and a sheet of white paper, he was able to escape into a world that was clean, expansive, and comfortable—a refuge from the pandemonium surrounding him.

The tiny house Koterba grew up in was full-to-bursting with garage-sale treasures and televisions his father Art repaired and sold for extra money. A hard-drinking one-time jazz drummer whose big dreams never seemed to come true, Art was subject to violent facial and vocal tics—symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome, a condition Jeffrey inherited—as well as explosions of temper and eccentricity that kept the Koterba family teetering on the brink of disaster.

From the canyons of broken electronics, the lightning strikes, screaming matches, and discouragements great and small emerged a young man determined to follow his creative spirit to grand heights. And much to his surprise, he found himself on a journey back to his family and the father he once longed to escape. An exuberant, heart-felt memoir that calls to mind The Tender Bar and Fun Home, Inklings is infused with an irresistible optimism all its own.

How does an artist find his voice when the world around him is full of noise?

• A Father’s Legacy: Meet Art Koterba, a former jazz drummer whose violent tics and house full of broken televisions hide a story of big dreams and a difficult inheritance.
• Creativity as Refuge: Discover how a young boy’s love for cartooning becomes his only escape from the screaming matches and crushing discouragements of a home teetering on disaster.
• Overcoming Adversity: Follow a journey of resilience as Jeffrey inherits his father’s Tourette’s Syndrome but finds his own path, determined to turn chaos into a creative life.
• Unforgettable Midwestern Memoir: For readers of The Tender Bar and Fun Home, this is a raw, funny, and ultimately optimistic story about finding your way back to the family you once longed to escape.