The Back Pain Avenger: Heal Chronic Back Pain and Destroy it Forever - Paperback

by Denise Chiappetta (Editor), Joe Chiappetta (Author)

2012 Illinois Arts Council Award Recipient. The Back Pain Avenger is a non-medicated memoir of rehabilitation. This alternative back pain relief book is loaded with comics, not endless chiropractor bills. Discover how one eccentric leader in the disability community finally overcomes his back injury and no longer suffers from chronic back pain. Find out if the unorthodox methods he uses in healing back pain will work for you. This hard to believe, funny, yet true story is written and illustrated by award-winning author Joe Chiappetta. Disability advocates, people with disabilities, their family members, as well as healthcare professionals and businesses that employ people with disabilities will be aching with laughs, insight, and the awareness that brings healing in this lighthearted yet powerful journey. Alternative medicine meets cartoon humor and the Bible. The book also includes Disability in Comics: a chronological index of major characters with disabilities featured in the history of comic books and strips. Features over 175 Silly Daddy comics and illustrations. Bonus features include stories by Denise and Maria Chiappetta as well as Jillian Moyet.

Author Biography

Joe Chiappetta is an American author and cartoonist, grateful to be happily married with three children. Currently living in Chicago, Illinois, his formal education was from Northern Illinois University, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with an emphasis in painting. While trained in the more traditional visual arts, his lifetime creative focus has been in writing and cartooning. As one of the key members of the Independent Comics Movement of the late 1980s and 1990s, Chiappetta's work is respected around the globe. He is best known as the man behind one of the longest-running autobiographical comics, Silly Daddy, which has been a rewarding creative endeavor since 1991. The series has received the following professional recognition: -Xeric Award Winner -Ignatz Award Nominee for Outstanding Story -Harvey Award Nominee for Best New Series While the bulk of Chiappetta's work has been within autobiographical comics, he has also maintained a focus on science fiction writing. Silly Daddy plots are notorious for taking off on sci-fi themed subplots. As a natural progression, Joe's 2010 release, Star Chosen, is a science fiction space opera for the whole family. That book was his first full-length novel without pictures. In 1998 Joe became a Christian, which is often evident in the more hopeful world-view represented in his writings and comics thereafter. Due to personal experience with a number of health impairments, Joe also writes about disability issues in his work, combining humor with the intent to help others have more compassion for those in need. Living life to the full despite health challenges is a recurring theme in his stories. For his work on The Back Pain Avenger, Joe won an Illinois Arts Council award in 2012. From his stories, one can tell that Joe enjoys spending time with God, family, other people with disabilities, science fiction geeks, and corny jokers. Also, at a moment's notice, he's usually up for a good game of chess, bike-riding, building forts in the woods, wrestling, foam sword fighting, and Bible study.