Happenstance is a graphic novel telling the story of a friendship between two people, the religious changes each undergoes in the context of that friendship, and the affect those changes have on their marriages. It explores questions of relationships and theology and friendship, portraying many different points of view on the questions it examines, but taking none. It is 450 pages long and in full-color.
Praise for Happenstance:
“It’s among the best graphic novels around; and certainly the best photocomic I’ve ever read.”
— Samuel R. Delany
A book-length (450 page) meditation on faith, doubt, friendship, and love, this is a vital contribution to comics…. Happenstance is a wonderful book.
— Arthur Whitman, The Ithaca Times
As a rule, I don’t like photo comics. Stephen Frug’s Happenstance is the wonderful exception. Happenstance features exceptionally strong panel-to-panel storytelling, interesting layouts, and great use of body language to convey emotion and character. In short, the beating heart of a real cartoonist runs through Happenstance. Add to that a strong sense of place and a religious conundrum story solidly grounded in character, and what we have is a unique graphic novel that everyone who likes smart comics should read.
— Barry Deutsch, author/illustrator of Hereville
Happenstance shows us the personal, the cosmic, and the spiritual as they really are: inseparable. Through four characters whose lives spiral around one another, Frug examines the intersections of faith, sexuality and identity in ways that leave the reader with no easy answers, but with a new set of questions with which to continue searching on their own.
— Bob Proehl, author of The Nobody People and The Somebody People
You can read Happenstance in its entirety online, for free, here: http://happenstance.thecomicseries.com/ (But it was meant to be a book & reads much better in that format. Really!)
Or buy it here at this web site: https://stephenfrug.com/shop/
Or buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578542536 Note: As of September 23, 2024, the Amazon store front for Happenstance is not working. I am trying to remedy this problem, but words cannot express the difficulty of trying to get customer service help from Amazon as a seller, so it may be a while. If you would like to read Happenstance, please either buy it at my store on this web site, buy it at one of the two shops listed below, or read it online.
It is also for sale at Autumn Leaves Used Books in Ithaca, New York and Million Year Picnic in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(If you are a bookstore owner and want to talk to us about carrying the book, please contact the press at stephenfrug – that cute little symbol for at – gmail.)