Rina Ayuyang in conversation with Thien Pham
FREE TO ATTEND. No registration required.
Join us on Thursday, May 4th at 7pm at Pegasus Downtown when we welcome Rina Ayuyang in celebration of the release of her highly anticipated new book, The Man in the McIntosh Suit. Rina will be in conversation with fellow cartoonist Thien Pham.
Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
About the book:
A Filipino-American take on Depression-era noir featuring mistaken identities, speakeasies, and lost love
The year is 1929 and Bobot is just another migrant worker in rural California. Or rather, a migrant worker with a law degree from the Philippines reduced to manual labor in America. Bobot, like so many other young Filipinos, finds himself bunking in the fields picking fruit by day. When his cousin writes claiming to have spotted his estranged wife in nearby San Francisco, he swipes a co-worker’s favorite nightclub suit and heads to the big city to find her. What follows is classic noir with seedy dives, mouthy pool sharks, and obsession.
Rina Ayuyang indulges her passion for old Hollywood and elaborate movie musicals while exploring her immigrant roots in a playful and mysterious drama creating something she never saw but always had hoped for—a classic tale about people who looked just like her. The Man in the McIntosh Suit is a gripping, romantic and psychological exploration of a fledgling community chasing the American dream in an unwelcoming society heightened by racial hostility and the bubbling undercurrent of the coming Great Depression.
About the participants:
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Rina Ayuyang was always inspired by the Sunday newspaper funnies and slice-of-life tales. Her short stories have been nominated for the Ignatz and Eisner awards and she has been honored with a MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence silver medal. Her comics have appeared in Mutha Magazine and The Comics Journal. She is also the publisher of the micro comics imprint, Yam Books. Her first book was Whirlwind Wonderland. Ayuyang lives in Oakland, CA with her husband and son.
Thien Pham is a graphic novelist, comic artist, and educator based in Oakland, CA. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Sumo and did the art for the middle-grade graphic novel Level Up, written by Gene Luen Yang. His Latest Book Family Style is a memoir about his family's immigration to America told through the lens of food comes out in June. Currently, Pham is working on his next graphic novel, teaching, and eating. A lot. Follow Thien on Instagram at @thiendog.
