David Heatley

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David Heatley (born October 17, 1974) is an American cartoonist, illustrator, graphic designer, and musician.

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David Heatley
(1974-10-17) October 17, 1974Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.
American
Cartoonist, Musician
My Brain is Hanging Upside DownQualification
www.davidheatley.com

David Heatley (born October 17, 1974) is an American cartoonist, illustrator, graphic designer, and musician.

Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, Heatley graduated from Teaneck High School in 1993. He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2000.

Though he studied painting and filmmaking at Oberlin College, Heatley started drawing comics regularly in the late 1990s. Since then, his comics and illustrations have appeared on the cover of The New Yorker, in The New York Times, McSweeney’s, Mome, and Kramers Ergot, among others. He has been featured three times in The Best American Comics series. Fantagraphics published two issues of his solo comic book series, Deadpan, which mostly featured Heatley's "dream comics", exploring his often sexual- and violence-tinged dreams in a straightforward, guileless style.

In September 2008, Pantheon Books released Heatley's first full-length book, My Brain is Hanging Upside Down. (Some of the material had originally appeared in such places as Deadpan, Mome, McSweeney's #13, The Best American Comics 2006, The Best American Comics 2007, and Kramers Ergot #5.) A graphic memoir, My Brain is Hanging Upside Down employs an unfiltered candor that borders on the confessional, presenting Heatley's life story through six interconnected narrative threads: "Sex History," (every sexual encounter of his life, beginning as early as kindergarten), "Black History" (a brutally honest reflection on Heatley's own experiences with racism, confronting uncomfortable truths), "Portrait of My Mom" and "Portrait of My Dad" (comic strip-style vignettes that both critique and celebrate his endearingly dysfunctional parents), and "Family History" (tracing his family's lineage from the lives of his great-great-grandparents through to the birth of his own children). Interwoven throughout these narratives are Heatley's "dream comics," which explore similar themes through surreal, unconscious logic. In his review for The New York Times, critic Douglas Wolk wrote of the book that it "seems to encompass every uncomfortable thought he's ever had about sexuality, race and his family."

In 2019, Pantheon released Heatley's second graphic memoir, Qualification: A Graphic Memoir in Twelve Steps, an exploration of his experiences with twelve-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, and more. Reader's Digest cited Qualification in its 2024 round-up of the 50 Best Graphic Novels for Adults.

Also in 2019, Heatley self-published (in partnership with the Brooklyn retailer Desert Island) Amy, a 190-page graphic memoir that explores his intense, unrequited love for a teenage friend, and the profound, lasting effects it had on his life. (Some of Amy had been serialized by Heatley on Instagram.) The limited-edition, digest-size work was printed in blue on a risograph.

Heatley's high school band Velvet Cactus Society released two albums on Shimmy Disc in the early 1990s. In 2008, he recorded (under his own name) a soundtrack to his graphic novel My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, featuring a cover of The Ramones song by the same name. The soundtrack was released on WonderSound records.

Heatley lives in Jackson Heights, New York, with his wife Rebecca Gopoian (an agnostic, Jewish-Armenian poet) and their two children, Maya and Samuel Heatley.

Heatley lists among his influences Daniel Clowes, Gary Panter, Fort Thunder, and Paper Rad.

  • My Brain is Hanging Upside Down (Pantheon Books, September, 2008) .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#bf3c2c)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#bf3c2c)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}ISBN 0-375-42539-X

  • (with writer Ellen Potter) Otis Dooda (Feiwel & Friends, 2013)

  • (with writer Ellen Potter) Otis Dooda: Downright Dangerous (Feiwel & Friends, 2014)

  • Qualification: A Graphic Memoir in Twelve Steps (Pantheon, 2019) ISBN 978-0375425400

  • Amy (co-published with Brooklyn's Desert Island, 2019)

  • Deadpan #1 (Fantagraphics)

  • Deadpan #2 (Fantagraphics)

  • My Home Birth by Christen Clifford

PublicationPublisher,Date,ISBNContribution
Kramers Ergot 4Gingko PressISBN 0-9677989-5-7ISBN 0-9800039-7-0
Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly ConcernIssue 13McSweeney'sMay 14, 2004ISBN 1-932416-08-0Original printing of "Portrait of My Dad";a strip on the table of contents page.
Kramers Ergot 5Gingko PressDecember 31, 2004ISBN 1-58423-172-615-page story: "My Sexual History"
Bête Noire #1Fantagraphics2004cover art
The Education Of A Comics ArtistAllworth PressMay 1, 2005ISBN 1-58115-408-92-page strip called "How I Became the Cartoonist I am today."
Mome Vol. 1 - Summer 2005Fantagraphics BooksSeptember 12, 2005ISBN 1-56097-650-0Part 1 of serial comic "Overpeck"
Mome Vol. 2 - Fall 2005FantagraphicsNovember 30, 2005ISBN 1-56097-684-5Part 2 of serial comic "Overpeck"
Mome Vol. 3 - Winter 2006FantagraphicsApril 24, 2006ISBN 1-56097-697-7Part 3 of serial comic "Overpeck"
Mome Vol. 4 - Spring/Summer 2006FantagraphicsJuly 31, 2006ISBN 1-56097-726-4dream comics
The Best American Comics 2006Best AmericanOctober 11, 2006ISBN 0-618-71874-5"Portrait of My Dad"
Mome Vol. 6 - Winter 2007FantagraphicsJanuary 16, 2007ISBN 1-56097-781-7dream comics
Mome Vol. 7 - Spring 2007FantagraphicsMay 22, 2007ISBN 1-56097-834-1dream comics
The Best American Comics 2007Best AmericanOctober 10, 2007ISBN 0-618-71876-1cover art; 10 pages of dream comics
The Best American Comics 2008Best AmericanOctober 8, 2008ISBN 0-618-98976-5
An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories: Volume 2Yale University PressOctober 21, 2008ISBN 0-300-12671-9
Kramers Ergot 7Buenaventura PressNovember 1, 2008ISBN 0-9800039-5-4

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  • Official website

  • David Heatley's artist page at Drawger

  • Heatley on comics and graphic design

  • webcomic based on poem by Diane Wakoski

  • September 2007 interview on the Inkstuds radio show

  • October 2008 interview from Comixology