
Part of Series
Tony Millionaire, creator of Sock Monkey and one of America's most popular weekly comic strips, Maakies, delivers his first original graphic novel for Fantagraphics, Billy Hazelnuts. Billy Hazelnuts transmutes nursery rhymes and the golem myth into a storybook about Becky, girl scientist, her friend Billy Hazelnuts (who was created from cooking ingredients by tailless mice), and their journey to find the missing moon while battling an evil steam-driven alligator with a seeing-eye skunk. Millionaire fuses the darker spirit of older fairy tales with an absurdist adventure story, throws gender politics into the mix, and brings it to life with his dementedly charming and meticulous drawing style that is utterly transporting. Billy Hazelnuts features all-new characters, a first for Millionaire after building a tremendous following for his Sock Monkey and Maakies characters, which is sure to delight existing fans as well as introduce an entirely new audience to his breathtaking line and imagination.
Author

Tony Millionaire was born in Boston and grew up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, by the sea. He attended the Massachusetts College of Art for three and three quarters of a year and resigned. He writes and draws the ongoing adventures of Sock Monkey, published by Dark Horse Comics since 1998. He is the creator of the syndicated comic strip, Maakies, which has run in weekly newspapers across the country begininning with The NY Press in 1994 and has been collected by Fantagraphics, who also published his graphic novels, Billy Hazelnuts and Billy Hazelnuts and the Crazy Bird. His work has garnered him five Eisner Awards, three Harvey Awards, and an Ignatz Award. His comic strip Maakies was adapted to the small screen in 1998 for SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and in 2008 as THE DRINKY CROW SHOW for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, which is now in repeats and available at www.adultswim.com. His illustrations appear in publications around the globe including THE BELIEVER, THE NEW YORKER and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. He illustrated many record covers including THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS “Then; The Earlier Years,” JON SPENCER’S “Going Way Out With Heavy Trash,” JOLIE HOLLAND’S “Pint of Blood,” and ELVIS COSTELLO’S “Secret, Profane and Sugarcane,” and recently ELVIS COSTELLO’S “National Ransom,” to be released in the US in November. He now lives in Pasadena, CA. with his wife, the actress Becky Thyre and their two daughters.