Aesthetics: A Memoir by Ivan Brunetti

Ivan Brunetti is a cartoon and comics scholar based in Chicago. This eye-popping illustrated autobiography traces his artistic trajectory and output, from youthful doodles to his cover illustrations and comic strips. Noted for combining blackly humorous, taboo-laden subject matter with simplified and exaggerated cartoon drawing styles, Brunetti was strongly influenced by Charles M. Schulz and Peanuts. 

Aesthetics: A Memoir unearths a trove of previously unpublished materials, including working drawings, sketches for cartoons, book covers, personal photographs, and items from the artist’s collection of toys and handmade objects. In an introductory essay and captions, Brunetti explains―in a voice that is as quirky, smart, and clear as his drawings―his creative process and aesthetic sensibility. This overarching retrospective conveys Brunetti’s philosophy of life and cartooning through his keen words and unforgettable images.

Born to working-class parents in a small town in Italy, and reared in Chicago, Brunetti was drawn to cartoons and comic strips from an early age. Finding inspiration in Spider-Man and Peanuts, he began crafting his own stories and gradually developed a unique style that he applied to imaginative, sometimes shocking subjects. The dark humour of his graphic novels earned him a cult following, yet his illustrations have had broad appeal. Now recognised as an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator, Brunetti has published his work in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and McSweeney’s, among others.