Graphic novel artist Dash Shaw reads and shows artwork from BodyWorld

Dash Shaw grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and studied at the School of Visual Arts. A prolific cartoonist and animator, he is the author of the 2008 graphic novel Bottomless Belly Button and BodyWorld, 2010, Pantheon.  He is 26 years old and lives in Brooklyn, New York

Bottomless Belly Button is Shaw's stunningly conceived and executed comic opus captures one moment of change in a family. Maggie and David Loony have called their three adult children to their childhood home to announce that, after 40 years of marriage, they're getting a divorce. Masterfully using the comics medium to juggle all the different characters, weaving their stories together seamlessly, Shaw allows the Loonys' emotions to play out naturally without forced resolutions, leaving a wistful hopefulness that feels just as conflicted and confusing as every family is.

"Dash Shaw's mammoth graphic novel is a sweeping tapestry of a family in crisis. It's sad, it's thoughtful, it's dirty and funny and hesitant and right in your face....You find a lot of [Shaw] inside his new book, but you'll find even more of yourself." Alan David Doane, Comic Book Galaxy