The Woodchipper

An award-winning cartoonist confronts anxiety and regret

A long-time city maintenance worker keeps pulling an accident prone newbie’s fat out of the fire or maybe in this case, an arm and another arm and a leg out of the woodchipper. What happens when NOTHING HAPPENS? Can a disaster averted still be a disaster?

In ＂Nestled All Snug,＂ frazzled bookstore clerk Sasha prepares to close the store and head home to watch Hallmark Christmas specials after a fight with her boyfriend means she’s home alone for the holidays. Hmm, that stack of boxes outside the bathroom seems a little precarious. Maybe Sasha will do returns when she gets back to work post-holidays. FWUMP FWUMP FWUMP. Guess someone is going to regret leaving their phone by the register before going to the bathroom.

In The Woodchipper, Joe Ollmann, cartoonist of the groundbreaking Governor General Award finalist Fictional Father, returns with a suite of comic short stories focused on his trademark nervous wreck characters caught in a series of escalating personal disasters. Everybody’s doing their best. Everybody’s just trying to get through the day.

Joe Ollmann lives in Hamilton, the Riviera of Southern Ontario. He has published two books with Drawn & Quarterly, 2011’s Mid-Life and 2017’s The Abominable Mr. Seabrook. He is the winner of the Doug Wright Award for Best Book in 2007 and loser of the same award another time.