Graphic Novelist Travis Dandro

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  • Mar 10, 2020

Maine graphic novelist Travis Dandro will be speaking about his debut graphic memoir, King of King Court, at the Lewiston Public Library on Tuesday, March 10th at 5:30 PM. This free, public program will take place in the Library’s Callahan Hall and will conclude with a book sale and signing.

From a child’s-eye view in King of King Court, Travis Dandro recounts growing up with a drug-addicted birth father, alcoholic step-dad, and overwhelmed mother. As a kid, Dandro would temper the tension of his every day with flights of fancy, finding refuge in toys and animals and insects rather than the unpredictable adults around him. Dandro perceptively details the effects of poverty and addiction on a family while maintaining a child’s innocence for as long as he can.

King of King Court spans from Travis’s early childhood through his teen years, focusing not only on the obviously abusive actions, but also on the daily slights and snubs that further strain relations between him and his parents. Alongside Dandro’s birth father committing crimes and shooting up, King of King Court lingers on scenes of him criticizing Travis and his siblings. Dandro gives equal heft to these anecdotes, emphasizing how damaging even relatively slight traumas can be to a child’s worldview.

As Travis matures into young adulthood and begins to understand the forces shaping his father’s toxic behaviors, the story becomes even more nuanced. Travis is empathetic to his father’s own tragic history, but unable to escape the cycle of misconduct and reprisals they are caught in. King of King Court is a revelatory autobiography that examines trauma, addiction, and familial relations in a unique and sensitive way.

In a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, King of King Court is described as “an extended poetic gaze on intergenerational helplessness and the violence it begets… Dandro expertly balances a child’s-eye view with authorial empathy. This gloriously scribbled story doesn’t rest on easy morals, or even attempt to forgive the past—Dandro’s triumph is drawing the reader through both the pain and beauty of his upbringing, and then moving forward.” The memoir has received official nominations for the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) Alex Awards, is a YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens pick, and appeared on The Guardian’s Best Comics and Graphic Novels of 2019 list.

Travis Dandro was born in Leicester, Massachusetts. He started publishing his first comic strip, Twerp, in the local newspaper when he was 13 years old, earning $15 a week. After graduating from Montserrat College of Art in 1996, Travis continued drawing comics, his work appearing in dozens of college newspapers across the USA and Canada. He also self-published Journal which was a notable comic in the 2010 and 2012 editions of The Best American Comics. King of King Court is his first graphic novel. Travis lives in Maine with his wife and three sons.

Copies of King of King Court will be available for sale at the event and a book signing will follow the talk. This presentation is appropriate for audiences in middle school through adult. For more information, contact the LPL Adult & Teen Services desk at 513-3135 or LPLReference@Gmail.com.