Second Act (1)

Joyce Brabner is moving forward with a step into the past. In the works since 2006, Brabner's new graphic novel, Second Avenue Caper: When Goodfellas, Divas, and Dealers Plotted Against the Plague, marks her first individual venture since the 2010 death of her husband and frequent collaborator Harvey Pekar. "Harvey always felt like he was holding me back," she says. "I asked him when I was working on this, 'Do you think I still have what it takes?' And he said, 'Of course. Just do it. Get on with it.' " Illustrated by Mark Zingarelli, the true story traces her friend Ray's transformation from a pot-dealing nurse and playwright to an activist. Set in the early 1980s as AIDS sweeps through the LGBT community, Ray's band of artist and actor friends attempts to cross the Mexican border in disguise to get experimental, illegal treatments. "I needed people to know that sometimes you have to go beyond boundaries in order to take care of your friends," she says.