Distance Makes the Heart Grow Sick: A Book of Postcards

by Cristy C. Road

Basking in the trenches of leftover teen angst, punk rock, and brutal honesty, author Cristy Road romanticizes the underdog in this collection of five years of artwork. Featured on 90 tear-out postcards, her work includes a poster for a punk show, a feminist flyer, a magazine spread, and an album cover.

Genres: Queer

96 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2008

About the author

Cristy C. Road is a Cuban-American artist, writer and musician who’s been supplying creativity for punk rock, publishing, & social justice movements since she was a teenager in Miami, circa1997. Road self-published Green’zine for ten years, and has since released three illustrated novels which tackle gender, sexuality, mental health and cultural identity; truthfully spoken with curse words and bathroom humor: “Indestructible” (2005, Microcosm), “Bad Habits” (2008, Soft Skull), “Spit and Passion” (2013, Feminist pRESS), and her most recent project, The Next World Tarot (2017 Self Published, 2019 Silver Sprocket), a traditionally illustrated Tarot deck depicting resilience and revolution. C.Road’s illustrations has been featured in New York Magazine, The Advocate, The New York Times, Maximumrocknroll, Razorcake, Bitch Magazine, Bust Magazine, and countless other publications; as well as on shirts, record album covers, concert and political advocacy posters worldwide.

As a musician, Road is a songwriter and guitarist. She fronted the pop-punk group The Homewreckers for eight years, and currently fronts her new project, Choked Up.

Road has been touring nationally and internationally on her own, with her punk rock bands, and with Sister Spit: The Next Generation since 2001. Cultivating a performance trajectory with a consistent show of defiance, she performs at bookstores, record stores, basements, bars, college campuses, and beyond.

She is a Gemini and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Punk postcards. Beautifully rendered and full of passion and emotion. Great stuff. I’d love to see her illustrate a comic/graphic novel.

[HeavyReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book to review for the Feminist Review blog (http://feministreview.blogspot.com). Here is what I wrote:

I really dig postcards. They’re the cheapest way to send a bit of mail to friends, a quick and inexpensive hello that doesn’t involve computer technology. Postcards are tangible and real, something that can be hung on the wall or stuck in a journal so every time the receiver looks at it, she/he can think sweet thoughts about the sender. It’s especially nice when the picture on the front is lovely and speaks to the person receiving the card.

With this collection of postcards showcasing the art of Cristy Road, you are sure to find something appropriate to send to every friend in your address book. From bikes to dumpsters to dildos; from beautiful women with hairy legs, glasses, and healthy curves to fellows who don’t look like macho men or Hollywood studs; in black and white and color, this selection of six year’s worth of Road’s work includes plenty of images to make everyone you know smile/think/sigh/dream.

Cristy Road has been making punk zines since she was 14 and has created art for Bitch and Jane, Green Day, The Queers, Ladyfest East, the Icarus Project, Maximumrocknroll, and NARAL. Both her feminist sensibilities and punk/DIY aesthetic shine through in her work, and even her most heartbreaking pieces are marvelous and gorgeous.

I highly recommend these cards for anyone who wants to communicate the old fashioned way of ink on paper, whether you are going to send them through the mail, give them with a gift, or use them to leave notes for friends who aren’t home when you drop by for a visit. Just be sure to pick out a few to hang on your own refrigerator or bathroom mirror so Cristy Road’s worldview can inspire and amaze you every day.

[Rand · Rating 5 out of 5]

The brief introductory essay is a poetry that makes this book worth picking up.

The perforated postcards make for an evocative and imaginative medium for your snail mail and/or decorative porpoises.

I'll be looking out for more of Road's work. If you like well-drawn rough characters, you'll love this little gem.