On my third birthday, my father, in an attempt to get me to stop sucking my thumb, gave me a gun.
“Today son, you are a man,” he said, snatching the little blue binky from my little pink hand. So I shot him.
So begins Mort Morte, a macabre, coming-of-age story full of butchered butchers, badly used Boy Scouts, blown-up Englishman, virginity-plucking cheerleaders, and many nice cups of tea.
Poignantly poetic, hypnotically hysterical, sweetly surreal, and chock full of the blackest comedy, Mort Morte is like Lewis Carrol having brunch with the kid from The Tin Drum and Oedipus, just before he plucks his eyes out.
In the end though, Mort Morte is a story about a boy who really loves his mother.
About the Author David Henry Sterry is the author of 13 books, a performer, muckraker, educator, activist, and book doctor.
His ground-breaking anthology Hos, Hookers, Call Girls and Rent-Boys was featured on the front cover of the Sunday New York Times Book Review. His first memoir, Chicken, was an international bestseller and has sold into nine countries.
He has written books about working at Chippendales Male Strip Club, the teenaged brain, how to throw a great pajama party if you’re a tween girl, a patriciding mama’s boy, World Cup soccer, a sex maniac, and how to get a book published.
He’s taught at Stanford, Reed and Smith. He’s appeared in the London Times, on NPR, and between the covers of both Penthouse and Playgirl magazines. He’s acted with Will Smith, Michael Caine and Zippy the Chimp.
He’s worked as a soda jerk, limo driver, referee, building inspector, Disney screenwriter, poet, athlete, telephone solicitation specialist, and marriage counselor.
He loves any sport with balls, and his girls.
About the Illustrator
Alain Pilon was born in Rouyn-Noranda in 1960; he currently both lives and works in Montreal.
He’s studied graphic design at the Université du Quebec in Montreal and in 1986 he decided to focus solely on illustration.
As a man of many talents, his art can take different forms, ranging from a Dadaist-style collage to an ink sketch in which you can feel the influence of classic Belgian and French bande dessinée. His work has been published in American, Canadian and French media, including The New York Times, Première, Popular Science, The New Yorker, L’Actualité and Infopresse. Les Allusifs publishing house has selected him to illustrate their novel covers.
He has worked with Air France magazine, Le Monde, as well as for the Psychologies and XXl magazines. He has received numerous awards, among which are the American Illustration Annual, Communication Arts, Society of Illustrators, Print Magazine, Design Annual, National Magazine Awards, Applied Arts, Advertising & Design Club of Canada.
He is represented in the USA by Garance.
For more information, please visit http://alainpilon.com.
