Recent interviews:
2021: Make It Then Tell Everybody: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tom-hart/id572995537?i=1000520622741
2020: Virtual Memories: chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-372-tom-hart


Rosalie Lightning (book) on 2016 Best of lists:
Slate
Mental Floss
Washington Post
Amazon Best of 2016
GoodReads Best of 2016 semi-finalist
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Reviews
​
"the most moving comic about family and loss and the unimaginable since Maus."
Andrew Wheeler

"...its focus is the wonder you can regain if you leave your wounded heart out in the air and sun."
LA Review of Books

"By far one of the most moving books of 2016."
O Magazine

"a book that resists description and contains manifold paradoxes: it’s visceral yet crafted; it’s a meditation on loss and a celebration of life; it’s a non-linear diary; a ritual and a primal scream of rage and despair; a paean and a prayer."
Scottish National

"Hart shows off a talent for manipulating the subtleties of graphic art and storytelling..."
Yakima Herald

"skillfully rendered... reads more like a love letter than an obituary"
The Rumpus

" a magnificent work ... a stricken, keening tribute."
Edmonton VUE

"... profoundly moving tale of a father's eternal love"
The UK Independent 

It is forthright yet disciplined, immaculately structured and so well worded that one is tempted to quote from every page.
Page 45

...as harrowing and profound as any literary novel...
​Entertainment Weekly

the structure of the book and the ways in which Hart expresses his emotions so plainly will stir in any reader an understanding of the connections which make us our best selves and the ineffable mystery of existence.
The Comics Journal

Comics for Grownups Full-podcast review

Hart is neither looking for your pity nor is he trying to educate you. He's just an artist, doing what he must do. Committing art.
Comic Strip of The Day

"... direct and are brimming with immediacy...an excellent work of self-discovery"
Comics Grinder Review
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"Rosalie Lightning is an attempt to name the unnameable. In its own way, it succeeds."
Seattle Review of Books

"...brave and fiercely articulate in the face of soul-shattering, mind-destroying grief. It is also a masterpiece of graphic storytelling..."
Public Books review 

​"This is a gut-wrenching account of a young family who must find some way to keep going. "
Mental Floss review

"...tremendous...What catapults this graphic novel into greatness... is its honesty. "
Publishers Weekly starred review 

"...watching his pen and his brush gradually feel out the contours of his loss is inspiring."
The Globe and Mail review

"He constructs the narrative arc so well, brings you so close to his tragedy, that I believe many copies of this book are going to end up salty and warped with tears." 
Paris Review review

Miami Herald capsule review
Boston Globe capsule review
GoodReads.com Reviews

Interview on the Michigan State University Comics Podcast
Interview on How To Live Agelessly with Beth Sobol
​Mutha Magazine interview
The Beat Interview
RIYL Podcast Interview
Savvy Psychologist Interview
Bloom interview
UF Alligator Article
ShrinkTank interview​
Read to Write Stories interview
Publishers Weekly profile (paywall)
Publishers Weekly podcast interview
Paste Magazine interview
Huffington Post interview
Comics Alternative podcast interview
NY Mag / Vulture Magazine interview
...
an IBOOKS Best 25 books of February pick: tw.apple.com/BestofFeb

A January 2016 Indie Next pick,
a Winter 2016 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick 
and THREE starred reviews: 
“Using stories from popular culture, mythology, and folklore as metaphors for his own experiences, Hart takes an extremely personal experience of loss and grief and makes it universal. 
Incredibly moving, and stunningly executed.” — Booklist, starred review
“The death of a child is one of the heaviest subjects imaginable, and to capture that devastation in a very cartoony style, as Hart does here, is no small feat. 
Beautiful and gut-wrenching…a gift to every reader and to anyone who has grieved.”
— Library Journal, starred review

“ROSALIE LIGHTNING is a masterpiece—and a luminous tribute to a brief, beautiful life.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

​
"This memoir about the death of his young daughter, is EVERYTHING I WANT IN A GRAPHIC MEMOIR. The writing is excellent. The drawing is raw, efficient, direct. It is honest, truthful, heartbreaking. There's no manipulation, just the facts and the emotions felt. I can't say enough good things about it. I think it's one of the best, not just graphic novels, but books, period, that I have read in a long, long time. People who know me know that I only like about 1/10th of 1% of the graphic novels I see...."-Mimi Pond

"AMAZING, MOVING, BRILLIANT ...  I am truly blown away... Honestly, it has been a very long time since a piece of art slayed me.  Thank you." - Jill Ciment

Advanced Praise for Rosalie Lightning (the book)

"Tom Hart's RL is honest, searching, burning, and beautiful. Every parent will find a piece of themselves in this unforgettable graphic memoir."

-Scott Mccloud

Denver Post:

Tom Hart's black-and-white "RL," excerpted briefly, recounts the loss of his 2-year-old daughter Rosalie by building a hill of fragile, elegantly drawn memories around it. It's a bleak and devastating work that shows comics' ability to convey emotion as effectively as any short fiction or literature. 

Lauren Groff, author of Arcadia and Fates and Furies:

The loss of a child is every parent's deepest terror. I don't know how Tom Hart was able to make such a stunning, harrowing book out of his devastation and rage; it strikes me as most gracious and humane thing anyone could possibly do. Reading Rosalie Lightning is like standing at the edge of an abyss and watching someone construct a gleaming titanium bridge by sheer, overwhelming force of love. 

John Darnielle, Author of Wolf in White Van:

If it's hard to talk about Rosalie Lightning without sounding hyperbolic, it's only because its achievement is so breathtaking: it is the bravest act of writing and bearing witness I expect to see in my lifetime. There aren't words of praise sufficient to this brave, unblinking task. It will comfort the grieving for generations to come; I am profoundly grateful for this book. 


Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like An Artist

It's near impossible to put grief into words, let alone words and pictures. And yet, here's Tom Hart's tale of parenting, loss, and the power of images, perfectly rendered in the language of comics. Only a cartoonist of tremendous skill and a father with loads of guts could piece through his heartbreak and come out with such a piece of art. I can't read it without crying.
INTERVIEWS:

Interviewed on Comics For Grownups, 2014.
Interviewed on InkStuds, 2014
Interviewed on The Ink Panthers, 2014

social media Screenshots: