Bruce Paley turned 18 in 1967 during the Summer of Love. Paley's tumultuousjourney took him from being a hippie in the 1960s to a heroin addict for much ofthe 1970s. These stories are vividly brought to life in Giraffes in My Hair:A Rock 'N' Roll Life by the compelling visual storytelling of Bruce'spartner, the cartoonist Carol Swain. Swain's trademark visual approach tocomics, typified by exquisitely composed panels that vividly capture both anomieand pathos, is perfectly suited to dramatizing Paley's life during thatconfusing, tumultuous period of American history - a life lived in thecountercultural margins, amidst personal chaos and social dissolution. Swain'sstorytelling rhythms are contemplative and breathe inner life into Paley'sturbulent stories, creating a perceptive prism to view the vast possibilitiesand endless pitfalls as experienced by a kid growing up in America in the late1960s and early '70s.
