Jacob's Apartment

by Joshua Kemble, Joshua Kemble (Artist)

Overview

Some questions can shake even the strongest faith.

At first glance,college roommates Jacob and Sarah seem like polar opposites. Jacob is aChristian; Sarah is an atheist. Sarah is a drinker, and Jacob, a teetotaler. Butthey have been friends for years, finding commonality in their shared dream tocreate art.

Jacob’s world is turned upside down when his fatherdies, causing him to question his faith. Meanwhile, Sarah wrestles with her owndemons, searching for solace in one-night stands after her boyfriend (andprofessor) leaves her for a job in New York.

A coming-of-age graphicnovel in the vein of Ghost World and Fun Home, Jacob’s Apartment weavestogether the threads of spiritual faith, identity, purpose, love, and loss tocreate an engrossing world in which waking and sleeping dreamscollide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781637790229
Publisher:	Graphic Mundi - PSU Press
Publication date:	06/07/2022
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,040,484
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

About the Author

Joshua Kemble is an art director, freelance illustrator, and Xeric Award–winning cartoonist. He writes and illustrates his own comic books and he published his first graphic novel, Two Stories: Book One, in 2020. An unabashed comic book geek, Kemble received his BFA and MFA in Illustration from California State University, Long Beach and resides in Lancaster, California, with his wife and fellow artist, Mai S. Kemble, and his son, Benjamin. He is the cohost of the podcasts The Artcasters and Indie Review Show. You can see Kemble’s work at https://www.joshuakemble.com.

Editorial Reviews

01/17/2022

A Christian comic book artist faces a crisis of faith as his father nears death in this downbeat graphic novel about grasping for meaning in the face of chaos. Kemble (Two Stories) introduces Jacob and his roommate Sarah commiserating on the couch after separate miserable nights. The angsty pair take different routes to ameliorating ugly childhoods and a dissatisfying present day: Sarah rolls through disappointing one-night stands, Jacob turns to whiskey to blot out the reality of his father’s stay in the ICU. Kemble pulls back from their couch convo to fill out their pasts: Sarah as a victim of abuse who used books and a line of unsuitable men to escape, Jacob as a bullied child who longed for the security of his parents’ faith. Jacob’s collapsing belief in God is dissected through an extended debate with a preacher, in which a flailing Jacob utters “existentialism had it right... that we’re just spinning in an empty void?” Sarah, meanwhile, seems to serve primarily as an object of Jacob’s frantic yearning. The artwork borrows dramatic Daniel Clowes–ian shadowing, though vivid fantastical interludes highlight the deeply felt but misaligned romanticism. It’s a passionate if uneven tale and should register with doomed-romance fans who don’t mind a spiritual component. (May)

Publishers Weekly

An excellent graphic novel that utilizes the unique possibilities of the medium to portray deep emotions in dramatic style.”

—Peter Dabbene Foreword Reviews

“I am in awe of this sharply drawn story of a young cartoonist weathering two troubled relationships—with his roommate and with God.”

—David Chelsea, author of Sleepless and Everybody Gets It Wrong! and Other Stories

“Literacy is next to godliness in Jacob's Apartment, a frank and melancholy portrait of two souls in search of meaning.”

—Maggie Thrash, author of Honor Girl

“Joshua Kemble’s storytelling packs a terrific visual punch perfectly suited to the emotional wringer his characters go through in Jacob’s Apartment.”

—Alex Robinson, author of Box Office Poison and Tricked

“An expertly paced and deeply felt story about a crisis of faith, dreams, complicated love, and the ways our childhood selves haunt our adult lives.”

—Theo Ellsworth, author of Capacity and Secret Life

From the Publisher