Dragon's Breath: and Other True Stories

by MariNaomi

In this collection of raw, emotionally honest stories, MariNaomi explores a wide range of topics including youthful rebellion, mortality, disillusionment, and compassion. Many of these stories were first serialized on the popular site The Rumpus. These poignant stories, some filled with hope, others tinged with remorse, are sure to appeal to even the most discerning reader.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Memoir, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Short Stories, Biography

384 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

MariNaomi (they/them) is the SPACE award-winning, Eisner-nominated author and illustrator of Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial, 2011), Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories (2dcloud/Uncivilized Books, 2014), Turning Japanese (2dcloud, 2016, Oni Press 2023), I Thought YOU Hated ME (Retrofit Comics, 2016), the Life on Earth trilogy (Graphic Universe, 2018-2020), Dirty Produce (Workman Publishing, 2021), and the collage-comics memoir I Thought You Loved Me (Fieldmouse Press, 2023). Their work has appeared in over a hundred print publications and has been featured on websites such as The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, The Washington Post, LA Times, The Rumpus, LA Review of Books, Midnight Breakfast and BuzzFeed. Their comics have been translated into French (Devenir Japonaise, Editions IMHO, 2021), German, and Russian.

MariNaomi’s comics and paintings have been featured in the Smithsonian, the de Young Museum, the Cartoon Art Museum, the Asian Art Museum, and the Japanese American Museum.

In 2011 and 2018, Mari toured with the literary roadshow Sister Spit. They are the founder and administrator of the Cartoonists of Color Database, the Queer Cartoonists Database, and the Disabled Cartoonists Database. They have taught classes for the California College of the Arts Comics MFA program, and was guest editor for PEN Illustrated. They were cohost of the Ask Bi Grlz podcast with author Myriam Gurba, and the California Leader of Authors Against Book Bans.

MariNaomi lives in Northern California with their spouse and a menagerie of beloved rescue animals.

Reviews

[MariNaomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I can't convince you to love it, who will?

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read MariNomi's Kiss and Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial, 2011), which comically details every romantic/sexual experience she has had. This volume is even better, really, as we broaden the scope to a range of people and experiences important to her life. 384 pages of mostly vignettes, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic.

Maybe the stories that stand out here for me are ones from her rebel drop out period, that in a sense help us understand where she is coming from. That isolation and alienation. Working odd jobs. Seeing old boyfriends in a different light. A few hard deaths.

The tone of the art and the stories is deft, economical, clean, and the book is gorgeous, with lots of white space for reflection, to allow the grace and humor and melancholy to flourish. These are very attractive and inviting comics, recommended.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author of Kiss and Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial, 2011) is back with this winning collection of short autobiographical stories that capture with grace and humor different periods from her life, ranging from traumatic to romantic, tragic to whimsical, and everything in between (including one tale called "Sleep Deprived" that may well give you the willies). MariNaomi is a master at distilling events and emotions into perfectly modulated, relatable anecdotes. Her visuals are clear and clean, with everything pared down to capture their individual essence; grouped together these stories triumphantly capture the very breadth of life itself. Highly recommended.

6/25/16: Rewarding to reread after recently finishing her latest, Turning Japanese. They go together beautifully.

[jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

memoir-ish, short vignettes. This hit a sweet spot for me. I laughed, I cried, etc. I can't remember the last time I loved a graphic novel like this. When I finished it, I gave it a hug.

[Sherri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put it down! So good, made my rainy day.

[Brodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

MariNaomi is in the midst of a tour for her new book Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories, published by 2DCloud. I finished the last of 384 pages last week, captivated throughout just as much by this memoir as I was by Mari’s previous release, Kiss & Tell. Those stories unfolded with the theme of relationships and growing up, and while this collection is described as “graphic vignettes” covering “a wide spectrum of topics,” I found reoccurring motifs here, too. Or maybe it’s just that I repeatedly had lip quivers and held back sniffles.

Mari appreciates both the good and the bad, all the complexities, in everyone from smelly and weird neighbors to cocky and withdrawn rock stars. Her point of reference, as well as probably most of the people who will be reading Dragon’s Breath, is having come up in the counterculture, in underground art and music scenes. But these tales put the reader in touch with everything that we share as humanity, no matter our stage or station in life, Mari’s specific anecdotes speaking to universal experiences.

The stories show Mari at various points in her life - as a kid who wants to rebel but is afraid to defy her parents, as a young woman who has run away from home, as a budding artist navigating her craft and bad relationships, and as a happily married adult contemplating a ballot and her own ethics. There is an undercurrent of fear throughout - fear of the unknown, fear of loneliness, fear of death, fear of strangers, and even fear of what loved ones can be capable of, whether they be kindly grandfathers with an abusive past or jealous, hypocritical boyfriends. But there are emotional victories, too, like moments of understanding between Mari and her parents, and finding love with her husband, Gary. There is one story that ends with photographs from the night that has just been chronicled in the previous pages, and it struck me as particularly poignant, a reminder that these “characters” in the comics I am enjoying are (or used to be) living, breathing people.

Mari is a brilliant artist, compelling storyteller and bonafide dragonslayer. Read her books, attend her readings, and join me in anticipating her next release, Turning Japanese. In the meantime, the dragon’s cave awaits your visit…

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

There aren't too many things I value more than a comic that can highlight the value of comics to the uninitiated.

Love & Rockets is usually my go-to book. Stuff by Grant Morrison if the target is patient, and interested in traditional genre fare. But if I'm going to hook someone quickly... going to impress the power of the medium upon some unsuspecting someone... I'm going with Craig Thompson, Gabrielle Bell, or MariNaomi.

The stories in Dragon's Breath are so powerful in their fragility, so expansive in their brevity. In "Happy Place," there's a juxtaposition between a delicate view of the Bay, "This is the happiest place on earth;" and the realities of crime and confusion a few miles north of The Bridge, that brings tears to my eyes.

I spent a lot of time changing buses in Marin City when I was a kid, visiting a friend whose mom moved him all over the county. I used to be cautioned about that place, that bus station. I hadn't thought about him in years. I wonder how he's doing. I wonder how many more memories and emotions we, as humans, have that connect us across time, place, gender, race, and experience. It's a powerful storyteller that can make you so interested in her life whilst helping you contemplate and appreciate your own.

I'm leaving this book out on the coffee table for a while. People won't see it coming, and I'm looking forward to the response.

[Raina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love MariNaomi's work. I'm pretty heartbroken that I missed her visit to Olympia in the Fall of 2014*. This is a collection of various short works she's written about her life. And while this suffers a bit from not having the narrative line of Kiss and Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22, it is equally honest, real, and riveting.
I have a bit of a crush on this lady.



*I was watching Amanda Palmer in Seattle, so I guess I shouldn't complain too hard.

[Elizabeth A · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm one of those people that think that there are simply too many memoirs being published these days, but decided to try this one as the reviews were great. This graphic memoir is a collection of vignettes, and I appreciated the honesty of the author in the telling. I really liked the illustration style, especially how extraneous bits are simply left out. That sentiment carries over to the stories themselves. I enjoyed this collection while reading it, but a couple of weeks later find that none of the stories have stayed with me.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

MariNaomi has become my literary equivalent to Wes Anderson. His films have this unique power to make me smile, laugh, and cry like none other. Also, the keyword there is unique and that's what Mari's books have felt to me thus far...unique!

Opening a package this week to discover this book inside immediately forced a smile upon my face. Just holding the book and looking at the cover sent chills throughout my body. I promptly sat down and began to read. Just like her other books I've read so far I spent my time really just gawking at her artwork on each page before reading on. I just LOVE the way she draws.

The wonderful aspect of this book is that many of the stories are shown in various creative ways. Doing this really just keeps me engaged as the reader. This is also one of the reasons I feel I just simply love to endlessly just drink in the artwork/style on each page.

Profiles. Once again, profiles on people,things,scenarios are included and I just love profiles!

Dialogue. Mari really has a knack for writing dialogue in a certain way that I just enjoy reading aloud so much. A lot of it is what makes me chuckle aloud frequently, smile, and cry.

The balancing act. Weaving in dramatic and tragic stories along with comedic ones is just brilliant. Like her other books there'd be a moment I was laughing and then...weeping!

A very pleasurable read. "I Thought You Hated Me" is up next!

Thank you MariNaomi!

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Mari.

[Sina Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I was just going to read a couple of pages of Dragon's Breath before bed, and couldn't put it down. The words "frankness," "rawness," and "vulnerability" get tossed around a lot with graphic memoir, but the difference here is the author's cool-natured approach to telling even the most awkward or heartbreaking stories. At times simple and straightforward, don't let the lighter strips fool you, MariNaomi's parables come unpacked in a way that leave her narrative visuals in your brain far after the reading experience.

A bold, beautiful, and charming book. I'm so proud this is on my bookshelf!

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. Understated and insightful, this is the sort of book one reads slowly on purpose, not wanting it to end. I'm fascinated by how MariNaomi manages to test out various artistic styles, yet still keep a minimalist vibe going. I don't know how it works, but it works really well.

The feelings invoked here are myriad and worth exploring--why are we alive, why do we fall in love, what's the fucking point, anyway--all conveyed through snapshot-ed moments from actual life.

(PS: It's also a lovely book-as-object: Uncivilized Books has put together a hefty volume with a stark but lovely cover. This book feels good in your hands. )

[Beckie Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories in this collection are so brief that it doesn't seem possible for them to be so striking and revelatory. But taken as a whole, Dragon's Breath is the best type of graphic memoir - beautifully honest, funny, astute and effortlessly smart. It was captivating from the first page to the last. It makes me remember falling in love with John Porcellino's work, though it has its own unique and memorable voice. Bonus points for a thoughtful/hilarious/horrifying story about bed bugs (a touchstone topic for me.)

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

MariNaomi captures the fabric of the human experience in this book of her collected autobiographical vignettes. The stories are real, and the way she tells them makes you feel the deep essences of their realness. I felt so frequently emotionally overwhelmed reading through Dragon's Breath that I could only take it in short bursts. Perfectly for me though, the format of the presentation of the short stories is well suited for that method of intake. In enjoying her soulfully crafted life accounts, this book simultaneously allowed me to better appreciate the poetry and cosmic mystery of my own stories. I think that's part of the magic of what she's done here. Dragon's Breath is a buffet of potent tastes of the human experience. I love it.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved MariNaomi style of illustration as well as her subject matter. It makes us understand that she had a long road to hoe before reaching her true home. Reading alpine, it made me homesick for my own rebellious Bay Area young adulthood.

[Patricia Q · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once you start reading this it's impossible to put down. Now go! Find it! Read it!

[Loz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Capturing pointed vignettes of life that depict true ironic introspection. Really enjoyed it. Art is spare but extraordinarily expressive. Stories are bare and raw and sobbingly hilarious.

[Albert Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first 5 star of this year, and hoping for many more to come!!!! I loved this graphic memoir so much!!!! Every story was really insightful to the artist life and troubles and road to get here!!! They all felt so personal and heavy! Even though they were illustrations and short, they carried so much weight to them!!! After each one you had to just sit for a second to feel it and then were you able to move on! HIGHLY WOULD RECOMMEND!!

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best comics resist easy comparisons to other art forms because they fully utilize things that can only be done in this medium, not any other. To describe the great collection Dragon’s Breath, at first I was going to call it a short story collection, I guess you could call the pieces vignettes, but I think what it’s really closer to is the comics equivalent of a poetry collection.

MariNaomi’s style is spare and almost surgically direct. There’s not a line wasted, or a word, like there isn’t in a great poem. Most of the pieces in the collection are short and can be read in a few minutes, which is what makes it amazing that in those spaces she can say so much.

My favorite piece in the collection, “Coalinga”, goes in a few short panels from being a funny recollection of a grouchy neighbor to being an extraordinary evocation of melancholy and isolation. The image of the neighbor lady goes from evoking a laugh to, when it’s reprised a few pages later, to evoking complicated questions about how well we can ever know the people who are in our lives. It’s pretty incredible.

The stories aren’t all melancholy. They run a gamut of emotions, and are often very funny. They were drawn over a long period of time, and for different reasons and in different styles. It doesn’t make for a disjointed collection, though, because of the uniting presence of Mari’s autobiographical avatar of herself, which is ultimately her best character.

A lot of autobiographical cartoonists focus on the negative aspects of themselves to the exclusion of everything else and, while the honesty can make for compelling reading, they run the risk of centering their story around a character that can be unpleasant to read about. Other autobio cartoonists make themselves the hero of the story, and their lack of insight into their own flaws can make you question the value of their other observations. Mari does neither of these things, but rather makes an autobio version of herself that is flawed and honest, but also loving and insightful and somebody you enjoy spending time with. Having read Kiss and Tell, her prior collection of autobio comics that mostly focused on relationships, and then reading this, I felt like I was picking up a sequel to a book I enjoyed where one of the chief pleasures was catching up again with characters you had missed.

What you do get from the large variety of stories in Dragon’s Breath is the privilege of seeing a cartoonist at the top of her game playing with all the different techniques in her toolbox. Some stories are only one panel per page, some are much more dense, some are almost silent, some have large blocks of text, and it serves the effect she wants to get in each. Like great poems, she evokes a mood or an idea or an event in each, wraps it up before it’s been overdone, and then on to the next one.

Dragon’s Breath is a pleasure if you like autobiographical comics, or if you don’t yet and you’d like to see what comics can do beyond the typical, or if you just like intelligent, adult writing in general. Highly recommended!

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much as I loved Mari's first book, Kiss and Tell, this one meant even more to me because instead of revolving around former lovers, it focuses on the people who have touched her life in other ways: old friends, unrequited crushes, teachers, and even strangers on the street. These 29 short stories are all strongly written with great endings, and I love the way she experiments with different drawing and storytelling styles. My personal favorites were "Leaving Home," about living near the desert as a child and being both scared and fascinated by a cave near her backyard, "The Quits," which is both about Mari's experiences with smoking and a tribute to her aunt, and "Independence Day 1998," a beautifully drawn scene of her walking on a beach at night while living as a runaway. Those were my favorites, but I loved them all.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent autobiographical comics! As a longtime reader of the genre, I thought I'd seen everything autobiographical that could be done, so it's exciting to see someone with such a fresh take on it come along. MariNaomi has a wonderfully clean, simple style that works well with her material. Some of these stories lean more towards text, others toward images. It depends what works best for the story, and she pulls off some impressively subtle effects. I'm definitely going to keep an eye peeled for more of her work.

[Dylan Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great collection of comics from MariNaomi! This is one of those books I'd read before bed and keep telling myself, "Okay, just ONE more chapter and then lights out." The minimalism of the artwork is perfect for her storytelling style, stripping each panel down to only the most essential lines. I especially love how she lets facial expressions carry the narrative - so many of the stories are about finely nuanced emotion, and it's great to see that nuance reflected in the art.

[Suzanne Lake · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my progress notes, I likened Dragon's Breath And Other True Stories to a delicious box of chocolates that you do not want to stop eating.It is a lovely package to read and re-read. I read some of the Rumpus postings and having them all together brings an added dimension to these sensitive well depicted vignettes. I plan to give Dragon's Breath And Other True Stories as gifts to my close friends.

[alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

So probably if I had read this one before KISS & TELL or if I hadn't read them almost back to back this would be five stars as well but I loved KISS & TELL so much and it felt so cohesive and I got lost in it. This one I loved a lot too but not quiteeeee as much but also it made me really excited for TURNING JAPANESE so a million stars to all of them.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short true stories, most of which were originally published online at The Rumpus. They are ordered chronologically, which gives it the feeling of a rough outline of a memoir. Many of them are recounting more mundane moments, yet still manage to be emotionally affecting.

[Gordon Warnock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is why I love comics. If you want to feel, pick up this book.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good quick read. MariNaomi is an astute observer of her own life and, like the best cartoonists, her art may seem simplistic on a quick glance but is actually anything but.

[Zoë Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to read MariNaomi's writing all day long.

[Darcy Roar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very contemplative tiny comic stories with a wide range of emotions attached. Some of these shorts hit me like a ton of brinks while others left me wanting. I think I would have enjoyed this one more if the last autobiographical comics I had read weren't long form and spectacular. There stories are good, but they just aren't what I was hoping for. Still! Lots of though provoking, funny, and sad stories here for your reading pleasure!