Come Home, Indio by Jim Terry

So happy to celebrate five years of Street Noise’s dissident graphic novel publishing by featuring a review of this incredibly moving autobiographical tale!

I’m not gonna lie, the first four parts of Jim Terry’s deeply personal graphic memoir Come Home, Indio, are tough reading. Jim, or JT as he’s often called, was born to an Irish American jazz bassist dad and a feisty, book-loving Ho-Chunk mom, who met in California, fell in love and had babies. The paycheck of an itinerant musician struggled to feed four however, so the family eventually all moved back to Illinois to be closer to Bill Terry’s parents. There the marriage fell apart, as Bill and Debbie began to drink more heavily. The divorce was ugly, and Jim and his sister Elena bore the brunt of it.

As a kid, Jim swore never to drink, having seen what it had done to his parents. That lasted till his first illicit party in the woods, where he had his first beer and finally understood why some people took to it so eagerly. Alcohol pretty much defined his life from then on, through college and adulthood, even as his parents got sober and fell ill. It took decades before he finally hit rock bottom and began a committed attempt at sobriety himself (he takes great pains not to call the program he uses AA but it’s pretty obvious that that’s what it is.)

Getting sober gives him the opportunity to finally confront the demons that have undermined his sense of self for so long. Social media alerts him to the construction of a pipeline through Native lands and the protests against them. He, Elena and their cousin Wetha drive over to the Oceti camp with donations and to volunteer their help. In my opinion, this is where the book starts getting really good, as Jim discovers the transformative power of radical empathy, connection and kindness, both in changing the outer world and in finding his inner peace.

Gosh, there are so many issues that Mr Terry grapples with both honestly and courageously here that I can’t even begin to properly encapsulate in one review. As with any memoir by a recovering alcoholic, reading can be a bit of a slog through the formative and self-destructive eras, but the payoff is extremely worth it. His depiction of Water Protectors got me to add them to the list of charities my family donates to semi-annually.

The art serves the narrative well. I was particularly impressed with the larger spreads, as the smaller six- to nine-panel pages can often feel crowded and old-fashioned. I don’t think I’d ever encountered Mr Terry’s work before this volume, but I’m so glad I have now! CH,I is thoughtful and moving, and tho you can tell that large parts of his life have been skipped over here in order to protect the privacy of others, this graphic memoir is a very brave look his own vulnerabilities and the lessons he’s learned about finding the strength to keep going and to keep making the world a better place. I’m so glad his story is out there, and in no small part due to publishers like Street Noise.

Come Home, Indio by Jim Terry was published October 13 2020 by Street Noise Books and is available from all good booksellers, including