By Luke Healy (Faber & Faber)
ISBN: 978-0-571-39672-6 (HB)
Irish multi-award winning, low-impact iconoclast Luke Healy studied journalism at Dublin University and earned an MFA in Cartooning from the Center for Cartoon Studies (Vermont, USA). An occasional stand-up comedian, his previous cartoon tomes – like Americana, Permanent Press, How to Survive in the North, The Con Artists and Self Esteem and the End of the World – have won prizes and acclaim, and he’s also held gallery shows in places like Manhattan’s Museum of Comics & Cartoon Art.
Healy’s earlier comics for VICE, The Nib, A24, Medium, Nobrow and Avery Hill are also exceptionally good and, as already stated, he exposes himself to ridicule on stage, but not so much, these days. That’s what his recent funny books are for – and as Bob Monkhouse used to say “nobody’s laughing now”… except that they are and in exactly the right places, just where Luke wants them to. We also all cry on command too, because that’s what dating in the modern world is like, okay?
Previously Healey addressed and ingested and passed baffled judgement upon all the trauma, weltschmerz and naff experiences of existence, diligently informed by exploration of basic Big Stuff like life, love, friends, and how to keep your head above emotional water. It kept us readers wonderfully entertained for a decade but here and now, that self-excoriating journey of discovery resolves into a fully realised, quirkily significant tale of anthropomorphic romance and the quest for lifelong contentment via a venture into dating, advice (wanted and otherwise) and comradely life support…
In Dog City – a mostly socially evolved metropolis equal parts London and the best bits of the East and West coasts of America – Brad is still looking for love and a steady life on a viable planet when he finally finds the dog of his dreams. However (and as always), renegade art student Bernie comes with baggage… and so very many of Brad’s dreams were always nightmares in waiting…
They first meet by hitting at speed – albeit a few precious moments apart – the same glass wall of Dog City Community College. Bernie had just comfortably removed himself from obnoxious academia by quitting his Abstract Art Class – a career move that will gravely affect his relationship with Brad once that poor mutt meets his ostensible true love’s unbelievable family! – whilst Brad is despondently there on behalf of an environmental charity. The crushed idealistic optimist was readying himself for one last go at turning self-obsessed students into eco-warriors motivated enough to save our deeply imperilled planet…
After bonding in the ambulance they subsequently share, bruised and battered Bernie & Brad agree to attempt the impossible task of gradually and cautiously getting to know each through a series of carefully planned dates. However, these guys are the kind thoughtful souls Nature creates just to beta-test cosmically cruel jokes for meaner people to capture on their phones…
The First Date is an absolute disaster, but Brad and Bernie persevere…
It’s worth it in the end…
Utterly beguiling and drenched in cute meets, charmed disasters, bondable moments, the best hopes of enthralled onlookers everywhere and the sheer determination to find, survive and enjoy love and companionship, Dogs on Dates is a passionate yet reserved pick-me-up for the emotionally exhausted, connection-wary, socially drained lonely hearts still hopefully looking for a shared life. Wry, witty, hopeful and encouraging, it’s what every Good Boi of any gender description wants, whether they admit it or not.
Fetch!
© Luke Healy, 2026. All rights reserved.
Dogs on Dates will be published on June 18th 2026 and is available for pre-order now.
On this date in 1977 US born Australian cartoonist Stan Cross (Wally and the Major, The Potts) died. We also lost Italian Andrea Pazienza (Zanardi) in 1988 and irreplaceable Man of Steel Curt Swan in 1996.
On the upside, the day welcomed French Canadian cartoonist Albert Chartier (Onésime) in 1912; illustrator Kack Keller (Kid Colt, Outlaw, Charlton’s entire “Hot Rod “comics division) in 1922; mega-stylist Frank Thorne (Mighty Samson, Son of Tomahawk, Red Sonja, Lann, Moonshine McJuggs) in 1930 and the Arnold half of the Pander Brothers (Grendel: Devil’s Legacy, Accelerate) in 1967.