Watertown Free Public Library is pleased to welcome comic creator Levon Gyulkhasyan to talk about his new graphic novel, Garbage Truck 1970, in conversation with cartoonist, comic historian and co-founder of MICE (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) Dan Mazur. This event will take place in the library Watertown Savings Bank Room on Tuesday, January 17 at 7:00 pm.
About the Book
The graphic novel is about a young man’s life in 1970 Soviet Armenia. He was killing the time by riding a garbage truck and asking about the truck’s innards only to hear stories about the recent past that nobody wants to talk about. Why Armenians were leaving the prosperous USA for Soviet Armenia which turned into the great mistake of their life? How does it feel to be kicked off the university with odious reason of being a relative of public enemy? These and other stories made the hero realize that traces of the past are everywhere and one has to live with it.
About the Author
Levon is a cartoonist and graphic artist who contributed to five anthologies published in the US and Armenia. He considers comics as a collective activity. Together with friends he participated and organized 24-Hour Comics and Drink’n’Draw Workshops in the US, France, and Armenia. In public spaces of eight cities in different countries he installed 90-feet long Jumbo Loop Comics. During Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo he makes an indoor interactive Jumbo strip which lets the expo visitors to add drawings thus mutually create a comic. Latest activity includes work in a jail guiding inmates to write and draw their stories.
Garbage Truck 1970 is his first graphic novel published in the US. Another graphic novel about displaced persons destiny during the WW2 was published earlier in 2022 in Armenia. Levon is a member of Boston Comics Roundtable and Actual Art Armenia.