Rosalie Lightning is one of this year’s most difficult and most

important books. It’s the story of a parent grieving the death of his young daughter the best way he knows how — through making a comic. Tom Hart taught the form for a decade at Manhattan’s school of Visual Arts before opening The Sequential Artists Workshop, a Gainesville-based school devoted solely to the art of comics making, where he serves as Executive Director. Hart has been producing his own work in earnest since 1994, when Hutch Owen's Working Hard earned him a Xeric Foundation grant for self-publishing. Over the years, the titular Wall Street-battling protestor has earned the cartoonist numerous industry awards and landed a daily strip in Metro newspapers. His new book i easily his most potent and highest profile, having landed the top spot on The New York Times’ best selling graphic novel list. As with the book, this conversation is not an easy one, but it’s one well worth having.