I kept thinking how so much of that is an emotional reaction to what was going on.

Just trying to record and find answers, basically.ĭueben: To prepare for this, I was reading some of your older work like Hutch Owen. That’s when I wasn’t drinking or crying or walking. Hart: Yeah, because again, that’s the main thing I do. Then, after about five weeks I stopped writing and turned my attention to forming, structuring, and drawing the comic.ĭueben: It was that soon that your response was, “I need to process this through art.” I did that for about five weeks, all the while thinking it might be best served as a comic because that’s what I’ve always done. The long answer is that right after it happened I did a lot of writing just to come to some understanding of what happened and trying to figure out what to do next. That process has been the main way I’ve dealt with the emotional world. Tom Hart: Well, it started when this happened because I’ve always written and drawn and I’ve always made books. It's the kind of book that’s simultaneously almost too painful to read and yet impossible to put down.Alex Dueben: How soon after Rosalie’s death did you begin to record your thoughts and feelings about what had happened? I know it’s only January, but I’m hard-pressed to imagine coming across a more emotionally honest and moving piece of art this year.

The book recounts Rosalie's life and death, and their immediate aftermath. 'The form of which Hart spoke became, ultimately, his new work, Rosalie Lightning: a Graphinc Memoir. 'There was a part of me,' says 'that realized I need to give my feelings some sort of form.'

But Hart, the acclaimed author of the Hutch Owen series of graphic novels, wasn't given a choice, nor did he have any option but to try to arrive at some sort of understanding - tenuous as it may be - by turning what happened into art. It’s the kind of thing often too painful to consider, let alone experience. Their baby girl, Rosalie, beautiful and vibrant, like all little children, died unexpectedly - and without explanation - in 2011, three weeks before her second birthday. From Vulture: 'Graphic novelist Tom Hart and his wife, Leela, lived through a horror story.

Rosalie lightning by tom hart