This is veteran cartoonist Hollander's first long-form work; her coming-of-age story, starring the gangsters, the glamorous, the bed bugs, the (enviable) Catholic girls, the police, the jukebox, the fortune teller, and the blue Hudson-the family car, always at the ready for frequent drives into better neighborhoods. Not only does this illustrated memoir give insight into how Hollander developed her style and wit, it's a chronicle of a Chicago community that has since disappeared into an expressway.

This is a graphic memoir about a longtime syndicated cartoonist's (Sylvia) mid-century Chicago childhood.