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.

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.

Joe Ollmann lives in Hamilton, the Riviera of Southern Ontario. His third book with Drawn & Quarterly, Fictional Father, was the first graphic novel to be shortlisted in the category of Adult Fiction at the Governor General’s Literary Awards.

Seth is the cartoonist behind the graphic novel Clyde Fans. His comics have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Best American Comics, and McSweeney’s Quarterly. His illustrations have appeared on the cover of The New Yorker, The Walrus, and Canadian Notes & Queries. He designs collections of work by Charles Schulz, John Stanley, and Doug Wright, and was the subject of a National Film Board documentary entitled Seth’s Dominion. Seth lives in Guelph, Canada in a house he has named Inkwell’s End.