Graphic Novel Tells Netflix’s Lady Dynamite! Through The Eyes Of Dogs

Lady Dynamite is a Netflix TV series starring Maria Bamford, loosely based on her life, and created by Pam Brady and Mitch Hurwitz, cancelled after two series in 2017. It told the story of stand-up comedian/actor Maria Bamford moving back to Los Angeles after spending six months away in recovery for bipolar disorder and attempts to build up her life from scratch with the help of her agent Bruce Ben-Bacharach played by Fred Melamed.

And now Fantagraphics is to publish Hogbook And Lazer Eyes, a new graphic novel by Maria Bamford and Scott Marvel Cassidy.

Fans of Maria Bamford’s acclaimed quasi-autobiographical Lady Dynamite Netflix series already know of her romance with LA painter Scott Marvel Cassidy, as well as her droll pug sidekicks Blueberry and Bert. Now the story has been recounted in the graphic novella Hogbook and Lazer Eyes, written by Bamford/Cassidy, drawn by Cassidy, and all told by the rescue dogs they’ve adopted. For those unfamiliar with the story, newly single fortysomethings Maria Bamford and Scott Cassidy each signed up on the dating site OkCupid, under the respective usernames “Hogbook” and “Lazer Eyes.” They went on a date, and then another, and soon, despite a history of Bipolar II disorder and unhealthy relationships for each of them, they fell in love and were married in 2015. We view all of this through the prism of their pug housemates, including Blueberry and Bert (who has an unnatural obsession with Michael Flatley of “Riverdance” fame), and the elderly bonded pair Betty and Arnold (who recount their star turn as interplanetary canine scientists in the second season of Lady Dynamite).

“As a dog lover, and as a comics fan, I was immediately charmed by Hogbook And Lazer Eyes from almost the first page,” says Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds. “Maria and Scott have crafted something as sweet and beautiful as it is laugh out loud funny.”

Hogbook And Lazer Eyes will be released in June 2023.