# David Heatley

David Heatley (born October 17, 1974) is an American cartoonist, illustrator, graphic designer, and musician.

## Biography
### Education

Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, Heatley graduated from Teaneck High School in 1993. He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2000.

### Comics

Though he studied painting and filmmaking at Oberlin College, Heatley started drawing comics regularly in the late 1990s. Since then, his comics and illustrations have appeared on the cover of The New Yorker, in The New York Times, McSweeney’s, Mome, and Kramers Ergot, among others. He has been featured three times in The Best American Comics series. Fantagraphics has published two issues of his solo comic book series, Deadpan, and Pantheon Books released his first full-length book, My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, in September 2008. In his review for The New York Times, critic Douglas Wolk wrote of the book that it "seems to encompass every uncomfortable thought he’s ever had about sexuality, race and his family."

### Music

Heatley's high school band Velvet Cactus Society released two albums on Shimmy Disc in the early 1990s. In 2008, he recorded (under his own name) a soundtrack to his graphic novel My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, featuring a cover of The Ramones song by the same name. The soundtrack was released on WonderSound records.

### Personal life

Heatley lives in Jackson Heights, New York, with his wife Rebecca Gopoian (an agnostic, Jewish-Armenian poet) and their two children, Maya and Samuel Heatley.

## Inspiration

Heatley lists among his influences Daniel Clowes, Gary Panter, Fort Thunder, and Paper Rad.

## Selected works
### Books

* My Brain is Hanging Upside Down (Pantheon Books, September, 2008, ISBN 0-375-42539-X)
* Otis Dooda, written by Ellen Potter, Feiwel & Friends, 2013
* Otis Dooda: Downright Dangerous, written by Ellen Potter, Feiwel & Friends, 2014
* Qualification: A Graphic Memoir in Twelve Steps, Pantheon, 2019 ISBN 978-0375425400

### Solo Comics

* Deadpan #1 (Fantagraphics)
* Deadpan #2 (Fantagraphics)

### Collaborative Comics

* My Home Birth by Christen Clifford

### Anthology appearances

| Publication | Publisher, Date, ISBN | Contribution |
| Kramers Ergot 4 | Gingko Press ISBN 0-9677989-5-7 ISBN 0-9800039-7-0 | |
| Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern Issue 13 | McSweeney's May 14, 2004 ISBN 1-932416-08-0 | Original printing of "Portrait of My Dad"; a strip on the table of contents page. |
| Kramers Ergot 5 | Gingko Press December 31, 2004 ISBN 1-58423-172-6 | 15-page story: "My Sexual History" |
| Bête Noire #1 | Fantagraphics 2004 | cover art |
| The Education Of A Comics Artist | Allworth Press May 1, 2005 ISBN 1-58115-408-9 | 2-page strip called "How I Became the Cartoonist I am today." |
| Mome Vol. 1 - Summer 2005 | Fantagraphics Books September 12, 2005 ISBN 1-56097-650-0 | Part 1 of serial comic "Overpeck" |
| Mome Vol. 2 - Fall 2005 | Fantagraphics November 30, 2005 ISBN 1-56097-684-5 | Part 2 of serial comic "Overpeck" |
| Mome Vol. 3 - Winter 2006 | Fantagraphics April 24, 2006 ISBN 1-56097-697-7 | Part 3 of serial comic "Overpeck" |
| Mome Vol. 4 - Spring/Summer 2006 | Fantagraphics July 31, 2006 ISBN 1-56097-726-4 | dream comics |
| The Best American Comics 2006 | Best American October 11, 2006 ISBN 0-618-71874-5 | "Portrait of My Dad" |
| Mome Vol. 6 - Winter 2007 | Fantagraphics January 16, 2007 ISBN 1-56097-781-7 | dream comics |
| Mome Vol. 7 - Spring 2007 | Fantagraphics May 22, 2007 ISBN 1-56097-834-1 | dream comics |
| The Best American Comics 2007 | Best American October 10, 2007 ISBN 0-618-71876-1 | cover art; 10 pages of dream comics |
| The Best American Comics 2008 | Best American October 8, 2008 ISBN 0-618-98976-5 | |
| An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories: Volume 2 | Yale University Press October 21, 2008 ISBN 0-300-12671-9 | |
| Kramers Ergot 7 | Buenaventura Press November 1, 2008 ISBN 0-9800039-5-4 | |