Von Allan and Rasputin’s Folk Café team up for graphic novel art exhibition.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. March 31, 2006 - Beginning on July 4th, 2006, Ottawa-based writer/artist Von Allan will be showcasing early pages of his forthcoming graphic novel, “the road to god knows…”, at Rasputin’s Folk Café.

Through the month of July, art lovers and graphic novel fans alike will be able to see pages from the graphic novel at the size that they were originally created. In an innovative attempt to bring the sequential nature of the story to life, additional pages from the graphic novel will be rotated into the café on a weekly basis so that patrons can follow along with the story as if they were reading the actual book. In addition, a vernissage will be held on the evening of July 6th that will also feature a question and answer period with the artist.

“The road to god knows…” is the story of Marie, a teenage girl, coming to grips with her Mom’s schizophrenia. As a result, she’s struggling to grow up fast; wrestling with poverty, loneliness, and her Mom’s illness every step of the way. Betty, Marie’s Mom, can’t help; she’s living with an illness that’s slowly getting worse and increasingly frightening. With her Mom absorbed in her own problems, Marie is essentially alone while she learns to deal with the chaos in her young life.

Marie’s youth makes it that much harder for her to cope; as a teenager, she just doesn’t have the life experience to feel confident about her decisions. At the start of the story, we see a scared young girl, uncertain and overwhelmed; but as Betty collapses into a full nervous breakdown, Marie is forced to examine herself and her life and come to a decision: does she continue to be a child, reacting to what’s happening around her? Or does she take control of her life, come what may?

“The trick in telling the story was not to come to any hard and fast conclusions about schizophrenia and mental illness, which is something I think can happen when you tackle this kind of subject matter,” says Allan. “People struggle every single day with mental illness and I would be doing a disservice to them if I just told a story with a simple solution. I wanted to tell a story that showed how the confusion and suffering of mental illness can harm families. And I wanted to show how love and understanding can help heal them.”

“The road to god knows…” is expected to be printed in 2007.

About Von Allan: Von Allan was born red-headed and freckled in Arnprior, Ontario, just in time for Star Wars: A New Hope. The single child of two loving but troubled parents, Von split most of his childhood between their two homes and, consequently, spent a lot of time in the worlds of comics and wrestling. He managed Perfect Books, a small independent bookstore in Ottawa, for many years while working on story ideas in his spare time; eventually, he decided to make the leap to a creative life, and “the road to god knows…” was the result. Additional information about the graphic novel can be found at www.vonallan.com.

About Rasputin’s Folk Café: Rasputin's, established in August of 1981, is a small family run “folk café” that emphasizes the relaxed and the informal. These days the café presents over 100 concerts a year, features open stages, and hosts jam sessions. Not to mention hosting a new art show each month. All in a tiny forty-seat club that has become known as an intimate venue to hear and meet some of our country’s finest singer and songwriters. The café is located at 696 Bronson Avenue in downtown Ottawa, Ontario.

Contact:

Von Allan
P.O. Box 20520, 390 Rideau Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. K1N 1A3
Email: von@vonallan.com
Phone: 613-236-9957

Dean Verger
Proprietor of Rasputin’s Folk Café, 696 Bronson Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. K1S 4G2
Email: dean.verger@rasputins.ca
Phone: (613) 230-5102

Best run between Monday, June 5th and Friday, July 7th 2006.

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