Hardcore Happiness: A Graphic Journey to Find Punk’s Positivity

Chancellor’s uplifting follow-up to Hardcore Anxiety finds the bipolar author rocking his demons away, striving to be a good husband, and attempting to recover the wild freedom and sense of community of his early punk fandom. He discovered the Clash and the Ramones as a bullied early aughts teenager, and went on to play in many bands. Here, he blends intimate personal stories of moshing, maturing, and mental health with rousing celebrations and mini-bios of his heroes, such as 7 Seconds, Gorilla Biscuits, the Minutemen, and the Violent Femmes—whose inclusion symbolizes how Chancellor fought off becoming a “bitter aging punk” who polices genre boundaries. Chancellor draws himself haunted by that possibility, represented by an Ebeneezer Scrooge–like worst version of himself, an on-point warning for diehards of any evolving art scene. He also learns to finally do the dishes—and gets ready to become a father. Chancellor’s thick-lined, bulbous character drawings charm, but their inherent humor doesn’t detract from the urgent emotional storytelling, especially in inventive sequences where he self-harms with a drawing pen, spirals on his wedding day, or takes a test to determine if he has ADHD. It’s a sweet mix of humor and bite, a little like a punk rock Judd Apatow. (June)