146: Fab 4 Mania with Carol Tyler

Ever wonder what the lives of those screaming legions of fans were like? Wonder no more: today, I speak with award-winning cartoonist, Carol Tyler, whose memoir of her Beatles adoration, Fab 4 Mania: A Beatles Obsession and the Concert of a Lifetime, has just been published. The book builds on the diary that she kept as 13-year old, vividly chronicling her devotion with the art and journals she kept from back in the day. Her journey articulates the fan experience of someone who grew up with The Beatles, while also serving as a love letter to the city of her birth (and mine): Chicago, and how local top 40 radio (WLS, WCFL, WVON) impacted young lives while shaping tastes.

Carol’s richly illustrated book transports readers back in time, capturing the immediacy of anticipating and witnessing a Beatles concert during those all-too-brief touring years. It features an Introduction written by Beatles biographer Hunter Davies.