This is a really interesting graphic memoir, of the author’s father’s childhood fame, and the impact that fame has on his whole family’s life. Nicely illustrated, and very well-written.

A fascinating look into what happens after a child star grows up. The autho’s father was once famous. This graphic memoir depicts what happens when the world gets to know one’s father better than his own son.

A well told story of a son's gradual discovery of his father's past as a child genius and quiz show champion. Depicted with appropriately quasi-retro art. Not light-you-on-fire brilliant but a solid, interesting story.

Joel Kupperman's achieved early fame as a math prodigy on the radio and TV show Quiz Kids, This is his son's telling of his story.

I enjoyed reading this graphic memoir but found the story very sad. The author's father was a child prodigy appearing on the radio/tv show Quiz Kids yet remembers very little about it and never discusses it. The author decides to research his father's childhood hoping to uncover some answers that will help him understand his father and his own childhood better. When beginning the search the author is hoping to engage his father but his father is still unwilling/unable to help. There are no big secrets to uncover just a very sad story about a young boy who was not happy with performing and being the center of attention. The artwork really matches this sad story. The story will stay with you long after you finish. Highly recommended

Joel Kupperman was arguably the most famous kid in America in the WWII era. So why does the former Quiz Kid seem to remember almost nothing of his years in the spotlight -- and is unwilling to talk about what he does remember? This graphic memoir documents a son's quest to figure out what kind of person his father was, and by extension, to know himself better, too.

I received a copy of this ebook from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

The author reflects and researches his fathers unusual life as a child genius who held a captivated audience for years on one of the first game shows. Interesting graphic novel and I learned about a piece of history I was completely unaware of.

What a fascinating story. I knew a little bit about old quiz shows and controversies surrounding them, but this view from the inside was amazing. Sadly, the story of an adult child trying to piece together the details of their parents' life when they're still alive but unable to fill in the details anymore is becoming more and more relevant all the time. It's a fascinating story about how experiences mold a person and the ripples actions can cause.

Sad, yet entertaining graphic novel about memory, loss, and child actors. The illustrations made quite the impact with this short novel. I appreciated the honesty and the arduous quest for answers, especially since the answers were difficult to accept.

This is a fantastic memoir. I was not part of this generation, and knew nothing about Quiz Kids going into this book, but I'm glad I picked it up. This is a poignant reflection on relationships between fathers and their children and on media and what it does to child stars.

The art style in All the Answers is stark and perfect. Kupperman's use of layout keeps the reader focused with nothing to distract from his father's experiences. His flipping between almost photo-realistic characters to characters more rounded and comic is also fantastic - making the past events seem sharper while also more distant, evoking in the reader that sense of distance Kupperman feels in regards to his father. Even though the book is short, it packs an emotional punch I'm still mulling over. Overall, a very good memoir.

This book was kind of interesting, but it was a little hard to get into. I think the format hurt it. It might have been a lot better with the physical book. As it was, I struggled to read it due to the formatting and the content.

'All The Answers' by Michael Kupperman is a graphic novel memoir about his father Joel Kupperman. It's touching and difficult to read.

Michael Kupperman's father Joel was a child radio star on a show called Quiz Kids. It's something he rarely talks about, and now that he has the beginnings of dementia, Michael wants to know more about this aspect of his life. He pieces things together through the course of the book. Joel's mother was behind his career, which included meeting celebrities and even a movie role, but never really that much money. Joel was forced into staying in the career for far too long, and eventually some people came to hate him. When he escaped that life, he didn't want to talk about it, even though there were really good aspects. As Joel's memory fades, Michael finds that the answers aren't easy or that they can be non-existent.

I really enjoyed the chance to read this. The art is good, and I liked the quotes that start each chapter, many of them about Joel. The story feels a bit detached from it's subjects, and that may be based on the relationship that father and son had with each other. Some readers might find this to give the story a lack of depth, but as |I finished this book and reflected on this aspect, it brings even more tragedy to the story.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Gallery 13, Pocket Books, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

What happens to people when fame is thrust upon them too soon? What if they can’t handle the spotlight, yet neither are they allowed to escape it? And when that shine finally does fade, what if they want to forget? Can they forget?

These are the sorts of questions that writer/illustrator Michael Kupperman asks in his new graphic memoir “All the Answers.” It’s the story of his father Joel Kupperman, who in the years during and immediately after World War II was one of the most famous figures in the country, thanks to his childhood participation on a wildly popular radio program. It was a past the elder Kupperman fought to forget, but when the specter of dementia loomed, Michael sought to learn more about this time in his father’s life before it was lost to the rapidly-blooming cloud of oblivion.

Young Joel Kupperman was brilliant, a child prodigy who shot to national prominence courtesy of a radio program called “Quiz Kids.” The show featured a number of incredibly intelligent young people answering questions live on the air. Joel’s specialty was an uncanny ability to perform complex mathematical equations in his head with tremendous speed and accuracy. That ability – along with a precocious and awkward charm – made him a fan favorite; he was beloved by people from across all social strata.

But fame wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Joel was never truly comfortable with his place on the show, though his mother drove him to continue. Eventually, he was no longer viable as a Quiz Kid and he was able to fade from the national consciousness; he went on to become a professor of philosophy and a noted academic – one who never spoke of his years of celebrity.

Joel’s son Michael wanted to know more – more about what it was like to be a Quiz Kid and more about what it meant to not be one anymore. After years of simply ignoring the past, a chance remark by Joel while watching an old movie opened the door for Michael to start asking questions. The result of those conversations is “All the Answers.”

It’s a fascinating look at the entertainment landscape as it appeared during the crossover from radio to television, as well as an exploration of the realities of Jewish identity in the postwar years. It’s a portrait of the layered nature of identity both public and personal. But mostly, it’s a powerful examination of the relationship between fathers and sons.

Kupperman is an incredible talent as a visual storyteller; when you marry that talent with the intense personal connection inherent to this kind of narrative, you get something that is truly special. There’s an idiosyncratic starkness to Kupperman’s art that manages to feel both simple and complex; his drawings elicit a striking depth of detail.

What “All the Answers” does so beautifully is tell an intimate story through a much larger lens. By engaging with his father about these long-ago events, Michael is able to feel that much closer to Joel in the present. He gets to see life breathed into what was heretofore little more than whispered legend. He gets to know his father in a manner that he never could before – and reaches a level of understanding with regards to who his father was … and why.

“All the Answers” is a marvelous example of how transcendent the graphic novel form can be. While there has been a growth of sophistication as far as audiences are concerned in recent years, too many people still dismiss the graphic novel as “merely” a comic book, little more than a childish diversion. “All the Answers” is far from childish. It is a heartfelt gift from son to father, a thoughtful and wryly funny story conveyed in both word and image because that is, quite simply, the best possible way to tell the tale.

“All the Answers” is unquestionably exceptional.

All the Answers is a truly amazing book. I've always known Michael Kupperman to be a hilarious cartoonist, but this book places him in a whole different level. It is a poignant story beautifully told. It is a very interesting story and one that I had no idea of going in. Highly recommended.

What a wonderful book! Through the words and the drawings, a sensitive and heartbreaking story is told. I felt this was an act of love by the son to write this book as a tribute to his dad and bring out a past that the father had never shared. He had such an unusual childhood mingling with rich and famous people and yet he really had no childhood at all. What a blessing that the son was able to gather these memories before dementia took all of them away from his father.

The narrative and the illustrations are right in sync and tell a beautiful father-son story.

An easily digestible and entertaining bit of little-known history, Michael Kupperman's book captures his father's memories and reflections at their ripest point and serves them up in a delightful read before they can be lost forever. A good read for anyone interested in the history of American pop culture in during World War II, this graphic memoir is old from the perspective of his father, the famous Quiz Kid and child prodigy, whose memory is slowly fading. Kupperman weaves the tale with excellent pacing, interweaving what he gleans from his father's tales with copious public records and scant private ones.

Brings to mind Paolo Bacilieri's graphic novel "Fun".

The meandering storyline was more informative than empathetic, and I had hoped for more of the latter. It was very easy to put myself in the author's shoes, becoming more invested in the story with each revelation of history, but for such a personal subject, the pages were largely lacking emotion, so there was a significant mental/emotional disconnect happening as I read. The art was good, but again, lacked emotion. I feel like I learned something, starting from a place of near zero knowledge about Joel Kupperman's historical significance, but also that I could never be satisfied with the information given and gleaned.

This one takes a while to get going, but the later chapters making it worthwhile to get through the first couple. Kupperman unearths some fascinating background on both his family and Quiz Kids. At times, his art and writing draw the reader in, and he navigates the challenge of moving between multiple eras with ease. The story covers his father's biography and the behind-the-scenes elements of Quiz Kids, but the heart of the book lies in Kupperman's relationship with his dad, and the mystery he unravels as he digs into the past.

I'm not as into this one as everyone else seems to be, and I'm not quite sure where the disconnect is. I think I wanted just a little more at various points. Even so, it's a skillful work, and a solid blend of analysis and emotion.

From the artwork to the exploration of who his father, Joel Kupperman, was as one of America's "Quiz Kids" during WWII, Michael Kupperman's exploration of his father is deep even though it is short. While written in much of the style of Fun Home, Persepolis, and Maus--As a graphic novel biography, the art is very much Kupperman's style. This is a story about a man trying to learn about his absent father, and why he was absent before dementia takes him away completely, and so much of this book really makes one think about family, history, child stars, and how we all connect or do not connect to those in our lives. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys biographies, graphic novels, history, and family. Seriously, this work is much deeper than it appears at first, give it a chance.
* I received an E-galley from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

It feels weird reviewing someone's experience with their father.

Art/Comic :



I've never experience Michael Kupperman's art style so it was weird. But it was easy to adjust to after a few pages. It was no longer something foreign but it grows on you.



Quiz Kid:



I never heard of this show before this book. It talks about his fathers experiences in this and things surrounding the show. How it was used as propaganda for the war efforts at the time. About how his dad continued on the show and overstayed his welcome.



His dad felt he needed to be there because that's what the people running the show & his mom acted like. The over staying his welcome caused trauma-- people hated him and attacked him when he went to university.



"Maybe people needed to see and hear Jews, to know that they were actual human beings."



Family Disconnect:



This is about a son who is trying to understand and connect with his father. His father was disconnected from him and life too busy blocking out his past.



While this is discussing his father and his past with a game show. The conversation of having a disconnect and lack of connection inside his family.... hit way too close to home for me.



The need to understand the past to understand the future is the big takeaway from this memoir -- or at least for me it is.

From Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.