In this imaginatively conceived historical graphic novel, Guy Colwell explores the story behind Hieronymus Bosch and his most famous work. In Guy Colwell’s first full graphic novel in over 30 years, we see one painter, Colwell himself, consider another, Hieronymus Bosch, and the story behind the latter’s most notable work told in sequential panels. The known details of Bosch’s life, and the commissioning of his enormous triptych, “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” are scant. Colwell takes the facts of Bosch’s time and setting and constructs a tale of a man and artist torn equally among piety, creativity, and commerce. In Colwell’s version of Jheronimus van Aken (Bosch’s real name), he is an artist paid well by local dukes to paint a vision of the world before the fall, but will the religious leaders of his village see it as celebrating God’s creation, or fatally corrupted by sensuality? And what of the increasing numbers of young models needed to depict pre-apple innocence? This imaginatively conceived graphic biography is Colwell’s crowning achievement in a cartooning career, begun in the underground comix movement of the 1970s, and marked by risk-taking and political engagement. His drawing, rendering, and storytelling has never been as self-assured as in Delights . Black-and-white illustrations "Painter and underground cartoonist Colwell turns the commissioning of The Garden of Earthly Delights in late 15th-century Netherlands into an epochal struggle between faith and doubt, superstition and reason. ... a thought-provoking venture into a time when art had life-or-death consequences." ― Publishers Weekly "An enlightening consideration of Bosch facing torments not far removed what’s depicted in his painting. Colwell depicts an anguished craftsman being prodded beyond his comfort zone to create a work of genius, and his informed interpretation has a strength of its own." ― The Slings & Arrows "It’s hard to think of a better pairing between artist and subject than Guy Colwell’s new book, Delights: A Story of Hieronymus Bosch . ... If this book is the capstone to his on-and-off-again comics career, it’s a fitting one." ― Canon Zine "A masterclass in cartooning." ― Four Color Apocalypse "Colwell tells a completely fictional account of how [Bosch's] weird and wonderful masterpiece The Garden of Earthly Delights might have come about. ... A truly delightful book." ― Fortean Times "This book really engaged me, and really sold me, on the story of how Bosch's painting got made." ― Living The Line Guy Colwell is a painter and comics artist best known for his bestselling underground comix series Inner City Romance (collected into a volume published by Fantagraphics in 2015). He worked extensively as an illustrator, cartoonist and color artist for underground newspapers and publishers from the 1970s into the 1990s, between sabbaticals for environmental research travel and social action. His other books include Street Scenes (2015), In Fox's Forest (2016), and Doll (2019). He lives in Berkeley, CA.