2008: By Esther Pearl Watson $19.99 / Hardcover (pink cloth with sparkly blue glitter) 416 pages / two-color / 5.75' x 5.75' A SOON-TO-BE TEEN CLASSIC Loosely based on a teenager's diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom, Unlovable is the remarkable story of Tammy Pierce, as filtered through the pen of Los Angeles artist Esther Pearl Watson. This remarkably touching and funny graphic novel tells the first-person account of Tammy's sophomore year in 1985, from the first day of school to winter break. Though building a devoted following over the last several years in the pages of Bust magazine, where Unlovable continues to be serialized, this is the first-ever collection of Unlovable and Watson has created over 100 new pages for the book, which details the sometimes ordinary, sometimes humiliating, often poignant and frequently hilarious exploits of underdog Tammy Pierce. Her hopes, dreams, agonies and defeats are brought to vivid, comedic life by Watson's lovingly grotesque drawings, filled with all the eighties essentials - too much mascara, leg warmers with heels and huge hair - as well as timeless teen concerns like acne, dandruff, and the opposite sex (or same sex, in some cases).Unlovable is about the rawness of trying to figure out who you are in a very public and humiliating way. 'I have always found teen coming of age stories to be from a male point of view,' says Watson. 'Growing up, I always wanted to be a tomboy so I could relate to characters on TV and in the movies, like Batman or Ferris Bueller. But in high school a lot of life as a girl was confusing and went un-addressed.' Unlovable addresses these mysteries through Tammy's naievete
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