Gipi has emerged as a world-class artist and writer. He teaches in fine arts academies, directs short films, illustrates for the popular newspaper La Repubblica, and proves time and again that he is a virtuoso of the graphic novel. His work is exhibited in museums and has won him countless honors. Just to name a few, he received major awards at the Lucca and Naples comics festivals, and in 2006 The Innocents earned him a Will Eisner Award nomination. His Notes for a War Story (upcoming from First Second) won the 2005 Goscinny Prize for Best Script and was proclaimed Best Book at Angouleme the following year. This extraordinary voice now rings out with five graphic songs in Garage Band.

When Giuliano's dad loans him a musty garage for his band to practice in, he and his friends - sardonic and ruthlessly ambitious Stefano; Alberto, who's obsessed with his father's mortality; and Alex, who collects Nazi posters - finally have a chance to cut their demo tape.

Admidst family tensions, subt;e class anxiety, and each boy's search for individuality, the frantic search to replace a blown amp lands the group in more trouble than they ever saw coming.

With luscious watercolor and nervy, elegant line work, Gipi, who may be the greatest Italian comics artist alive today, crafts stories that are at once gritty and eloquent, deceptively simple and startlingly truthful.