My Dream of Life

Edition excerpt from My Dream of Life (2027): A new volume of previously uncollected comic-book collaborations between artist and writer Joe Brainard and legendary New York City poets such as Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery, Anne Waldman, Ron Padgett, and many more. In his C Comics, Joe Brainard debuted an unprecedented style of comic art that combined his drawings with words provided by his many poet friends. In My Dream of Life: Joe Brainard’s Comics with Poets, 1964–1978, we see the full maturation of Brainard’s collaborative creative process. Working with fifteen poet friends, he draws amnesiac cats (with Kenward Elmslie) in “Baby’s First Smile”; uses the pages of The East Village Other to warn of the dangers of a certain suspicious yellow fruit in “Beware of Bananas”; reveals surprising facts about his friends and himself (Did you know that John Ashbery once worked in a cherry canning factory? Did you know that Bill Berkson was a bat boy for the Yankees? Did you know that Joe Brainard himself wanted to be a minister?); and, with the help of Robert Creeley, he dares to ask the universally scary question “Where Are They Now?” of the class of ’47. Reuniting with longtime collaborators like Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Frank O’Hara, James Schuyler, and Ted Berrigan, along with new comics contributors such as Anne Waldman, Lee Harwood, and Harry Mathews, Brainard expands his vision of comics and their limitless possibilities. Edited by comics scholar Bill Kartalopoulos with an introduction by Geoffrey O’Brien and a foreword by Ron Padgett, My Dream of Life: Joe Brainard’s Comics with Poets, 1964–1978 is a testament not only to Brainard’s creative wizardry and his superb draftsmanship but also to the richness and pleasure of a lifetime of artistic friendship.