Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park... When You’re 29 and Unemployed

As part of Penn State Press’s ambitious Graphic Medicine line, Wright’s graphic novel succeeds both artistically and from a health-policy perspective. It isn’t some dry lecture, but a beautifully rendered account of the author caring for his father as he endured the final stages of emphysema. Told in layered flashbacks with a healthy sense of dark humor, Wright’s story tracks his evolution from an emotionally distant art school graduate to his old man’s primary caregiver. Best known as an animator, Wright has a muscular and high-contrast drawing style that emphasizes each scene’s emotional content without pushing it into caricature, although occasional forays into allegory (father as a rhinoceros and Wright as a minotaur), can distract from the narrative. Such quibbles aside, this is a powerful debut with a deeply resonant story about living with the seemingly impossible. “You can do anything,” Wright’s father reassures him before an embarrassing procedure, “as long as you breathe through your mouth.” (Nov.)