Fab4 Mania

By Carol Tyler. Published by Fantagraphics. 

Softcover, 272 pages, Colour, 2018. 

A graphic memoir about a 13-year-old girl’s Beatles obsession and the concert of a lifetime!

Critically acclaimed cartoonist Carol Tyler recreates the exhilaration and excitement of Beatlemania at its height in 1965, her personal obsession with the Beatles, and her odyssey that leads her to the famous Beatles Chicago concert later that year. Told in the voice of its 13-year-old author, Fab 4 Mania is a facsimile of the diary that she kept throughout 1965, and is brimming with rich period details, humor, and insight. It’s a look into the life of a teenager from a working-class family whose love of music awakens her senses and opens her up to the world beyond that of small-town Fox Lake, Illinois. It is also about the Beatles, as seen through the eyes of a young, giddy teenager and a reflective, adult artist, and the joy the band gives.

"Fab4 Mania, a beguiling diary of seeing the Beatles at Comiskey Park in 1965, is not only among this year’s best books, but a rare treasure: Beatlemania from a female perspective, from one of the crying, screaming foot soldiers." — Chicago Tribune

"If you own any pre-Rubber Soul Beatles records, you’ll probably want to put them on shortly after picking up this charming, evocative volume." — Forbes

"A fascinating and intimate portrait of one girl’s perspective at a time when music and culture were changing radically." — CityBeat

"Tyler communicates the frenzy of navigating adolescence with grace and lyrical heft." — Hyperallergic

"Tyler's innocence and honesty make the book effortlessly endearing. ... the excitement and seemingly never-ending thrill practically leaps from the page." — PopMatters