All My Bicycles

Description

In this nonlinear graphic memoir, Powerpaola uses bicycles she’s owned as a vehicle to explore the world, her relationships, her memories – and herself. ‘A bicycle is a machine that you power yourself. You decide where you want to go,’ writes cartoonist Powerpaola, as the guiding principle of this graphic memoir. All My Bicycles is a story that never really begins, existing all at once in Paola’s memory. The book illustrates Powerpaola’s relationships through her many bicycles: in fragments, it takes her back to her great loves and losses, friendships, and disappointments. Powerpaola’s memories arrive abruptly and leave just as fast, creating a pathway through herself she can only find in moving forward. In remembering a bicycle, a manhole, an alligator, or a necklace, Powerpaola reflects upon these items in her consciousness without finding a concrete solution. All My Bicycles is a glimpse into how exploring these fleeting tangible moments – of physical objects, of traveling and seeing a new city, of even the end of a relationship – is an exploration of self. POWERPAOLA is a Columbian Ecuadorian cartoonist and illustrator based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is the author of the graphic memoir Virus Tropical (2011), which became a movie in 2017 and received critical acclaim worldwide; followed by Por Dentro, (2012), Diario (2013), qp (2014), Todo Va a Estar Bien (2015) and Nos vamos (2016). Her work deals with themes of sexuality, feminism, family, and personal identity. She is a member of the international collective Chicks on Comics.