Qualification

“Heatley is a great, dark, funny, truth teller. Qualification reveals how complex humans are, how full of contradictions, what a life-time struggle it is to sort it all out, a test at which no one ever fully succeeds. I could deeply identify with Heatley’s alienation, his honest self revelations, his humor. His observations of other people and the unfolding events in his life make for a powerful graphic story.”
—R. Crumb
 
“This graphic narrative, rich in detail and reflection, shouldn’t be read quickly in one sitting but rather savored. Heatley powerfully demonstrates that when lives are messiest, art remains cathartic, even redemptive.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“One of the most unflinchingly honest and emotionally raw memoirs ever written . . . Readers will find themselves moved by this stunning memoir, and perhaps even grateful for the author’s refusal to shy away from depicting the complexity of his ongoing development as an artist and a human being.”
—Tom Batten, Library Journal (starred review)

“Both sobering and spirit-lifting . . . Heatley (My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down) recounts in squirmy, funny detail a chaotic childhood that leads to an ironic ‘addiction’ to recovery programs in this ultra-candid memoir.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Acclaimed artist David Heatley delivers a heavy but self-revelatory examination of 12-step programs and the nature of addiction. . . . A masterful inventory of a life lived in search of intangible purpose.”
—Zack Ruskin, Shelf Awareness

“The payoffs and pitfalls of a lifetime spent in 12-step programs are portrayed with brutal candor in Heatley’s unflinching graphic memoir of his decades-long search for solutions to his vices.”
—Booklist