Coyote Doggirl

Appeared on best of 2018 lists from NPR, Bustle, and Nylon

"Coyote Doggirl is like Lisa Frank meets Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid... This book is as whimsical, funny and dark as any episode of that show."--NPR's Best Books of 2018

"Even further proof of Hanawalt's peculiar genius, her ability to access difficult truths in the most absurd ways possible."--Nylon's Best Illustrated Books of 2018

A raucous and fierce Western by the BoJack Horseman producer/production designer and award-winning cartoonist

Coyote is a dreamer and a drama queen, brazen and brave, faithful yet fiercely independent. She beats her own drum and sews her own crop tops. A gifted equestrian, she's half dog, half coyote, and all power. With the help of her trusty steed, Red, there's not much that's too big for her to bite off, chew up, and spit out right into your face, if you deserve it. But when Coyote and Red find themselves on the run from a trio of vengeful bad dogs, get clobbered by arrows, and are tragically separated, our protagonist is left fighting for her life and longing for her displaced best friend. Taken in by a wolf clan, Coyote may be wounded, but it's not long before she's back on the open road to track down Red and tackle the dogs who wronged her.

An homage to and a lampoon of Westerns like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Lisa Hanawalt's Coyote Doggirl is a self-aware, playful subversion of tropes. As our fallible hero attempts to understand the culture of the wolves, we see a journey in understanding and misunderstanding, adopting and co-opting. Uncomfortable at times but nonetheless rewarding and empowering, the story of these flawed, anthropomorphized characters is nothing if not relentlessly hilarious and heartbreakingly human. Told in Hanawalt's technicolor absurdist style, Coyote Doggirl is not just a send-up of the Western genre but a deeply personal story told by an enormously talented cartoonist.

Author: Lisa Hanawalt
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Published: 08/21/2018
Pages: 156
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.97lbs
Size: 7.40h x 5.80w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781770463257
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/14/2018
Library Journal 09/01/2018 pg. 49

About the Author
Lisa Hanawalt is the producer and production designer of the Netflix original series BoJack Horseman. She has worked on illustrations, book covers, animations, comics, murals, and textile patterns, and exhibits her work in galleries. Her quarterly food column for Lucky Peach won her a James Beard Award for humor. She cohosts the podcast Baby Geniuses with the comedian Emily Heller. Hanawalt's first collection with Drawn & Quarterly was the critically acclaimed My Dirty Dumb Eyes. Her second book with D+Q, Hot Dog Taste Test, won her the Ignatz Award and appeared on best-of-the-year lists from The Washington Post, The Guardian, NPR, and elsewhere.