Melody Story of a nude dancer

Rancourt started dancing in Montreal strip clubs in 1980 and a few years later began selling photocopied autobiographical comic books in the bars where she worked. A professionally published and newsstand-distributed edition followed, establishing her as a pioneering Canadian graphic memoirist. This is the first English-language publication of Rancourt's comics (although a slicker adaptation by a professional illustrator became a cult hit stateside in the late 1980s). She relates her strip-club experiences; her troubled relationship with her layabout, drug-dealing boyfriend, Nick, who suggested she take up stripping in the first place; and her conflicts with her family over her career, all with a forthright, nonjudgmental detachment. Rancourt's unsophisticated drawing style is even more straightforward: not only are her illustrations childlike but her crude characters themselves resemble children, imparting an innocence to the proceedings that precludes any eroticism, no matter how hard-core the events may be. As Building Stories artist Chris Ware maintains in his introduction, Rancourt's work shows that good cartooning is not about good drawing but about something else entirely. --Flagg, Gordon Copyright 2015 Booklist

Rancourt finds grace in unlikely places in this charming volume, originally self-published in the 1980s. Melody is an exotic dancer with a deadbeat husband, a promiscuous nature, and far too many bills to pay. But despite these less than ideal circumstances, she keeps smiling-a quality that sees her through everything from a police raid to drug troubles. Melody's life-based on Rancourt's own-is rocky, but never to the point of complete collapse; likewise, Melody herself is buoyant, but never a Pollyanna. The book finds wonderful balance in blending these elements, making the mundane details of Melody's life a delight to engage with. Rancourt's art is undeniably simple, but in wearing its punky, self-published origins on its sleeve, it becomes a fascinating artifact of history as well as a heartfelt reflection. This is an unvarnished look at exotic dancing, a tribute to fortitude and optimism, and a sincere reflection on a colorful life. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.