California Dreamin' from Pénélope Bagieu depicts Mama Cass as you've
never known her, in this poignant graphic novel about the remarkable
vocalist who rocketed The Mamas & the Papas to stardom.
Before she was the legendary Mama Cass of the folk group The Mamas and
the Papas, Ellen Cohen was a teen girl from Baltimore with an incredible
voice, incredible confidence, and incredible dreams. She dreamed of
being not just a singer but a star. Not just a star--a superstar. So, at
the age of nineteen, at the dawn of the sixties, Ellen left her hometown
and became Cass Elliot.
At her size, Cass was never going to be the kind of girl that record
producers wanted on album covers. But she found an unlikely group of
co-conspirators, and in their short time together this bizarre and
dysfunctional band recorded some of the most memorable songs of their
era. Through the whirlwind of drugs, war, love, and music, Cass
struggled to keep sight of her dreams, of who she loved, and--most
importantly--who she was.