DRAWN & QUARTERLY Fall 2011 Catalogue
Daniel Clowes
THE DEATH-RAY
A POSTMODERN COMIC OF A NICOTINE-FUELED TEENAGE VIGILANTE THAT WON THE EISNER, HARVEY, AND IGNATZ AWARDS
Teen outcast Andy is an orphaned nobody with only one friend, the obnoxious—but loyal—Louie. They roam school halls and city streets, invisible to everyone but bullies and tormentors, until the glorious day when Andy takes his first puff on a cigarette. That night he wakes, heart pounding, soaked in sweat, and finds himself suddenly overcome with the peculiar notion that he can do anything. Indeed, he can, and as he learns the extent of his new powers, he discovers a terrible and seductive gadget—a hideous compliment to his seething rage—that forever changes everything. The Death-Ray utilizes the classic staples of the superhero genre—origin, costume, ray gun, sidekick, fight scene—and reconfigures them in a story that is anything but morally simplistic. With subtle comedy, deft mastery, and an obvious affection for the bold pop-art exuberance of comic book design, Daniel Clowes delivers a contemporary meditation on the darkness of the human psyche. “It’s like Holden Caulfield with his phaser set on kill. Phonies beware.” —Time “The Death-Ray reads as a cautionary parable and an acidic rumination on the travails of adolescence… Clowes demonstrates what the comic book can do and literary fiction can’t.” —The Observer ALSO AVAILABLE:
WILSON 978-1-77046-007-2 / $21.95 US/$22.95 CDN DANIEL CLOWES is the cartoonist of the iconic comic book series Eightball and of the graphic novels Wilson, Ghost World, David Boring, and Ice Haven; the screenwriter of Ghost World and Art School Confidential; and an illustrator for The New Yorker. He is married and lives in Oakland, California.
National Author Tour • National Publicity • National Advertising • Promotional Poster
World rights available excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly; UK: Cape; France: Cornelius; Spain: Mondadori Resevoir Books; Germany: Reproduckt; Italy: Coconino; Holland: Oog & Blik
OCTOBER 2011 • $19.95 USD/CDN • Full Color • 5 1/2” X 7 1/2” • 48 PAGES
COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-051-5 • HARDCOVER
CANADIAN AUTHOR
Kate Beaton
HARK! A VAGRANT A NEW COLLECTION BY THE WEB SENSATION AND NEW YORKER CARTOONIST
Hark! A Vagrant takes readers on a romp through literature and history—with dignity for few and cookies for all—with comic strips about famous authors, their characters, and political and historical figures, all drawn in Kate Beaton’s pared-down, excitable style. This collection features favorite stories as well as new, previously unpublished content. Whether she’s writing about Nikola Tesla, Napoleon, or Nancy Drew, Beaton brings a refined sense of the absurd to every situation. In just four years, Beaton has taken the comics world by storm with her non sequiturs, cheeky comebacks, and irreverent punch lines. With 1.2 million monthly hits on her site—500,000 of them unique—and comics appearing in Harper’s Magazine, the National Post, and The New Yorker, her caricatures of historical and fictional figures filtered through a contemporary lens display a sharp, quick wit that knows no bounds. “[Beaton’s comics] are witty reinventions of literary and historical figures navigating modern times . . . A high-minded version of The Far Side that is at once of-the-moment and timeless.” —Deborah Vankin, the Los Angeles Times “Simply put, this is the most well-drawn, funniest comic that I’ve read in a while.” —Adrienne So, Wired “[Beaton’s] neat linework and terrific grasp of simple caricature and facial expression sells a lot of the best strips, including Sasaki Kojiro meeting an undignified end, Jane Austen and Nikola Tesla being pestered by their fans, and Lord Byron muttering “Bitches, man” to a grieving Percy Bysshe Shelley. A-” —The Onion A.V. Club KATE BEATON grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and anthropology at Mount Allison University. Her website is harkavagrant.com.
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North America Rights: D+Q; UK Rights: Jonathan Cape: All Other Rights: The Author
OCTOBER 2011 • $19.95 USD/CDN • B/W • 8 1/2” X 7 1/2” • 160 PAGES
COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-060-7 • HARDCOVER
Lynda Barry
EVERYTHING, VOLUME 1
COVER NOT FINAL
“ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST CARTOONISTS” –LAURA MILLER, SALON
From her first comics published in the Evergeen State College school paper to her influential weekly comic strip, Ernie Pook’s Comeek; from her bestselling creative how-to memoir comic books, What It Is and Picture This, to her novels, graphic memoirs, plays, and awards in between, Lynda Barry has been part of the North American alternative comics scene for thirty years. Fans around the world rejoiced at D+Q’s announcement of Everything, which collects all of the seminal Ernie Pook’s Comeek, some of which has been out of print for decades, and includes her earliest books, such as Girls and Boys and Big Ideas, and features an introduction penned by Barry, complete with photographs. Reflective of the early 1980s before the appearance of Barry’s well-known characters ,Marlys and Arna, the comics in Everything, Volume 1 cover the more adult subjects of bad love, bad perms, being single, Prince, and miserable break-ups—resulting in one of the most oft-quoted Barry sayings: “Love is an exploding cigar which we all willingly smoke.” Though Barry’s early drawing style is most often described as “scratchy,” her affinity for large swaths of text and narration; her fondness for exclamation marks, angular shapes, and cursive penmanship; and her uncanny ability to zero in on the very essence of life all within a few panels is as present as ever in this collection.
ALSO AVAILABLE:
PICTURE THIS 978-1-897299-64-7 / $29.95 USD/$31.95 CDN WHAT IT IS 978-1-897299-35-7 / $24.95 USD/CDN LYNDA BARRY has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator, and teacher and found that they are very much alike. She lives in Wisconsin.
National Author Tour • National Publicity • National Advertising World rights available excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly NOVEMBER 2011 • $24.95 USD/CDN • B/W • 8 3/4” X 10 7/8” • 176 PAGES
COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-052-2 • HARDCOVER
CANADIAN AUTHOR
Seth
GREAT NORTHERN BROTHERHOOD OF CANADIAN CARTOONISTS Whenever you’re in Dominion, on Milverton Street you will stumble across an arresting array of handsome old buildings. The one with the pink stone façade and the familiar Canadian cartoon characters over the doorway is the Dominion branch of the Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists, erected in 1935 and the last standing building of the once prestigious members-only organization. For years, this building, filled with art deco lamps, simple handcrafted wood furniture, and halls and halls of black-and-white portraits of Canada’s best cartoonists, was where the professionals of the Great White North’s active comics community met—so active that there were outposts in Montreal and Winnipeg, with headquarters in Toronto. Everyone from all branches of the industry—newspaper strips, gag cartoons, nickel-backs, comic books, political art, accordion books, graphic novels—gathered in their dark green blazers to drink cocktails, eat, dance, and discuss all things cartooning. Seth opens up his sketchbook to an unseen world of Canadian comics, sometimes fictional and sometimes not, sometimes humorous and sometimes bittersweet, but always fascinating in its creative exploration of Canadian comics history. Whereas Wimbledon Green celebrated the comics collectors, The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists celebrates the cartoonists the comic collectors love. ALSO AVAILABLE:
WIMBLEDON GREEN 978-1-89659-793-5 / $19.95 USD/CDN GEORGE SPROTT 978-1-89729-951-7 / $24.95 USD/ $29.95 CDN IT’S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON’T WEAKEN 978-1-89659-770-6 / $24.95 USD/CDN SETH is the cartoonist of Clyde Fans; It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken; Wimbledon Green; George Sprott; Bannock, Beans, and Black Tea; and Vernacular Drawings; the designer of the New York Times bestselling Peanuts collections; and a New Yorker illustrator. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.
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World rights available excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly
OCTOBER 2011 • $24.95 USD/CDN • B/W • 6” X 8” • 136 PAGES COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-053-9 • HARDCOVER
CANADIAN AUTHOR
Doug Wright (with design by Seth)
NIPPER 1965–1966
Doug Wright’s pantomime strip about the life of a suburban family moves into the mid-1960s, and the pop culture of the time begins to seep in. Wright showcases the domestic mayhem that parents and their kids experience throughout the year. The endless play of kids is prevalent, from skateboarding to snowball fights, from the guilty pleasure of making prank phone calls to the daily roughhousing of siblings. “Masterful.” —The Onion A.V. Club
NIPPER (1963–1964) 9781770460195
THE COLLECTED DOUG WRIGHT 9781897299524
DOUG WRIGHT (1917–1983) was a Canadian cartoonist whose weekly comic strip, Doug Wright’s Family, aka Nipper, ran for more than thirty-five years in magazines and newspapers across Canada and the United States.
World Rights Available Excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly AUGUST 2011 • $16.95 USD/CDN • Two Color • 8” X 5 1/4” • 112 PAGES
COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-056-0 • PAPERBACK
Jose-Louis Bocquet, Jean-Luc Fromental and Stanislas Barthélémy
THE ADVENTURES OF HERGé A GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHY OF TINTIN’S CREATOR
The Adventures of Hergé is a biographical comic about the world-renowned comics artist Georges Prosper Remi, better known by his pen name, Hergé. Meticulously researched, with references to many of the Tintin albums and complete with a bibliography and mini-bios for each of the main “characters,” the biography is appropriately drawn in Hergé’s iconic clear line style as an homage to the Tintin adventures that have commanded the attention of readers across the world and of many generations. Seven-year-old Hergé first discovered his love of drawing in 1914 when his mother gave him some crayons to stay out of trouble. He continued drawing in school when he fatefully met the editor of XXe Siècle magazine, where Tintin first appeared. His popularity skyrocketed from the 1930s through post–World War Two. Hergé was perceived by some to have aided the Nazi government in Belgium by continuing to publish Tintin in a government-sanctioned magazine, and he was briefly imprisoned in the aftermath of the war and narrowly escaped execution. Also covered are his marriage troubles in the 1950s and subsequent affair with Fanny Vlamynck, who went on to become his lifelong partner; his late career in the 1960s, as his interest in Tintin waned and he occasionally “disappeared” for weeks at a time as he contemplated giving up his career to become a fine-arts painter; and a recounting of a humorous encounter with Andy Warhol.
JOSE-LOUIS BOCQUET is a French novelist, journalist, and essayist. He has written more than twenty books, including biographies of other cartooning legends such as René Goscinny (Astérix) and Yves Chaland. JEAN-LUC FROMENTHAL is the author of more than thirty French graphic novels. He has collaborated with many key figures in French comics, including Yves Chaland and Blexbolex. STANISLAS BARTHÉLÉMY has drawn graphic novels and children’s books in France since 1986. He is one of the founding members of the French seminal publishing house L’Association.
National Publicity • World English Rights: Drawn & Quarterly SEPTEMBER 2011 • $19.95 USD/CDN • Full Color • 9 1/8” X 11” • 64 PAGES COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/BIOGRAPHY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-059-1 • HARDCOVER
Brian Ralph
DAYBREAK AN ART-HOUSE TAKE ON THE CLASSIC ZOMBIE GENRE
You wake up in the rubble and see a ragged, desperate onearmed man greeting you. He takes you underground to a safe space, feeds you, offers you a place to sleep. And then announces that he’ll take the first watch. It’s not long before the peril of the jagged landscape has located you and your newfound protector and is scratching at the door. What transpires is a moment-to-moment struggle for survival—The Road meets Dawn of the Dead. Daybreak is seen through the eyes of a silent observer as he follows his protector and runs from the shadows of the imminent zombie threat. Brian Ralph slowly builds the tension of the zombies on the periphery, letting the threat— rather than the actual carnage—be the driving force. The postapocalyptic backdrop features tangles of rocks, lumber, I beams, and overturned cars that are characters in and of themselves. Ralph’s stunning debut was the wordless graphic novel Cave-In, created while he was one of the founding members of the influential Fort Thunder art collective. Drawing inspiration from zombies, horror movies, television, and first-person shooter video games, Daybreak departs from zombie genre in both content and format, achieving a living-dead masterwork of literary proportions.
“Brian Ralph’s comics present more than meets the eye, but they’re eye candy, too, and work well as fantasy stories that cover a specific landscape over a period of time roughly equivalent to the experience of seeing how they unfold. I find them immensely pleasurable.” —Tom Spurgeon, Comics Reporter “Brian Ralph’s adventure stories combine the hand-crafted charm of indie comics with the well-thoughtout thrills of good pulp. A-” —The Onion A.V. Club
BRIAN RALPH is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and is currently a professor of sequential art at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
National Author Tour • National Publicity • Comic-Con International Debut
World Rights Available Excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly SEPTEMBER 2011 • $24.95 USD/CDN • Two Color • 6” X 8 1/2” • 160 PAGES
COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-055-3 • HARDCOVER
CANADIAN AUTHOR
Marc Bell
PURE PAJAMAS
IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE HUMOROUS, FRENETIC WORLD OF NONSENSICAL WORDPLAY AND TALKING HOT DOGS
Pure Pajamas collects Marc Bell’s best material from his syndicated weekly comic strip for the Montreal Mirror and the Halifax Coast, as well as a host of anthologies such as Kramers Ergot, Expo, Maow Maow, and more, featuring his recurring characters Kevin, Ol’ Simp, Chia-Man, Mr. Socks, and Shrimpy and Paul. Throughout Pure Pajamas, Bell creates symbiotic relationships within his fantasy ecosystems, drawn in a rubbery big-foot style. Reminiscent of the sixties comics of R. Crumb but with a kind of bemused detachment in place of Crumb’s ire, Bell addresses the big issues of what it’s like to live in today’s world. Praise for Hot Potatoe: “Bell has a gift for incomprehensible gab, juggling a dozen language gags in complicated comic pages that, like Ulysses, could take you twenty-four hours or a lifetime to read.” —Lee Henderson, Border Crossings “[Bell’s] drawings combine the beautiful flatness of the characters in Guston paintingsandtheabilitytocreateimpossible environments in three dimensions that odd characters can explore and wander around.”—Vice “Bell’s comics align perfectly with pop, each form attuned to capture the blips and burbles that gurgle out from our subconscious, without question and with great and unconstrained gusto. Beep beep!”—Sean Rogers, The Walrus ALSO AVAILABLE: HOT POTATOE 978-1-897299-89-0/ $39.95 USD/$44.95 CDN MARC BELL is a cartoonist and gallery artist who lives in London, Ontario.
National Publicity • World Rights Available Excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly
NOVEMBER 2011 • $22.95 USD/CDN • Full Color • 9” X 11 1/2” • 96 PAGES COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-054-6 • HARDCOVER
Chris von Szombathy
CANADIAN AUTHOR
A FOOL’S GOLD
A NEW PETIT LIVRE DETAILING OUR EXPENDABLE POP CULTURE OBSESSIONS
In his second book with D+Q, Vancouver artist Chris von Szombathy expands on his obsession with advertising iconography and the media at large. He takes the everyday objects around us—like soda-pop bottles, ketchup containers, and hamburger wrappers—and (almost) turns them into things of beauty. In paintings and sculptures characterized by bright, primary colors, von Szombathy has created an ode to fast-food culture and the society that supports it. His imagery veers from simple line work to meticulously detailed pastiche, occasionally with a “Wacky Packages” quality about them. From the crude cartooniness of pieces like “Hotdog Runner” to the skillfully reconstructed day-old doughnut in “The Shape of Things to Go,” the everyday vulgarity of our disposable culture has never looked better.
“[Von Szombathy’s] goofy, pop aesthetic is a pleasure to discover.” —Hour (Montreal) “I love [the] petits livres series from Drawn & Quarterly. [Von Szombathy’s] work is pretty insane . . . It’s as if we are seeing a cartoon’s dreams.” —Julia Rothman, Book By Its Cover
CHRIS VON SZOMBATHY works and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, as a visual and auditory artist.
National Publicity • World Rights Available Excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly
NOVEMBER 2011 • $19.95 USD/CDN • Full Color • 7” X 7” • 96 PAGES
ART BOOKS • ISBN: 978-1-77046-057-7 • PAPERBACK
John Stanley and Dan Gormley
NANCY
THE JOHN STANLEY LIBRARY, VOLUME THREE
In the third volume in the Nancy series drawn by journeyman writer John Stanley, he continues to put his strange but fascinating stamp on the iconic character. Nancy declares poverty and battles yoyos on Oona’s house, but the book also features her pal Sluggo, who Nancy complains is too dirty.
“Seriously charming, funny and at times downright weird.”—Time Out Chicago
OTHER TITLES AVAILABLE FROM
THE JOHN STANLEY LIBRARY
MELVIN VOL 1 9781897299630
NANCY VOL 1 9781897299777
NANCY VOL 2 9781897299968
13 GOING ON 18 9781897299883
MELVIN VOL 2 9781770460034
MELVIN VOL 3 9781770460300
TUBBY 9781770460232
JOHN STANLEY (1914–1993) was a journeyman comics scripter in the 1950s and 1960s. He is most famous for his scripts for most of the Little Lulu comics produced by Dell, and is considered by many comics historians to be the most consistently funny and idiosyncratic writer to ever work in comics. He left comics bitterly sometime in the late 1960s, never to return.
North American Rights: D+Q; All Other Rights: United Features
AUGUST 2011 • $29.95 USD/CDN • Full Color • 7 3/4” X 11” • 120 PAGES COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-050-8 • HARDCOVER
RECENT TITLES OF NOTE PAYING FOR IT by Chester Brown
CANADIAN AUTHOR
Chester Brown has never shied away from tackling controversial subjects in his work. As the cartoonist of the autobiographical The Playboy and the biography Louis Riel, Paying For It is a natural progression for Brown as it combines the personal and sexual aspects of his autobiographical work with the polemical drive of Louis Riel. Brown calmly lays out the facts of how he became not only a willing participant in but also a vocal proponent of one of the world’s most hot-button topics–prostitution. Paying For It offers an entirely contemporary exploration of sex work–from the timid john who rides his bike to meet his escorts, wonders how to tip so as not to offend, and reads Dan Savage for advice, to the modern-day transactions complete with online reviews, seemingly willing participants, and clean apartments devoid of cliches street corners, drugs, or pimps. Paying For It is a book that stands for itself and will be the most talked about graphic novel of 2011. INTRO BY R. CRUMB and praise from Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Tracy Quan and sex columnist Sasha. World Rights Available Excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly • MAY 2011 • $24.95 USD/CDN B/W • 5 1/2” X 7 1/2” • 272 PAGES • COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • 978-1-77046-048-5 • HARDCOVER
ONWARD TOWARDS OUR NOBLE DEATHS by Shigeru Mizuki Shigeru Mizuki is the preeminent figure of Gekiga and one of the most famous working cartoonists in Japan today–a true living legend. Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths is his first book to be translated into English and is a semiautobiographical account of the desperate final weeks of a Japanese infantry unit at the end of World War II. The soldiers are told that they must go into battle and die for the honor of their country, with certain execution facing them if they return alive. Mizuki was a soldier himself (he was severely injured and lost an arm) and uses his experiences to convey the devastating consequences and moral depravity of the war. INTRO BY FREDERICK SCHODT SHIGERU MIZUKI‘s list of accolades and achievements is long and detailed. Currently, in Japan, the life of Mizuki and his wife has been made in an extremely popular television drama that airs daily. Born March 8, 1922, in Sakaiminato, Tottori, is a specialist in stories of yokai and is considered a master of the genre. He is a member of The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology, and has traveled to more than sixty countries to engage in fieldwork of yokai and spirits of different cultures. North America Rights: Drawn & Quarterly; All Other Rights: The Author • MAY 2011 • $24.95 USD/CDN Two Color • 8” X 5 1/4” • 112 PAGES COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-177046-041-6 • PAPERBACK
SCENES FROM AN IMPENDING MARRIAGE by Adrian Tomine You are cordially invited to witness the hilarious true story of one couple’s long march to the altar. Adrian Tomine opens the pages of his private sketchbook to reveal a witty, intimate account of the heady months prior to getting married. Through a series of comic vignettes, Tomine captures the amusing, taxing, and often absurd process of planning a wedding, as well as the peculiar characters and situations that he and his fiancée encounter along the way. Filled with incisive humor, keen observations, and unabashed tenderness, Scenes from an Impending Marriage is a sweet–natured document of the little moments leading up to the big day. World Rights Available Excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly; UK: Faber & Faber; France: Delcourt; Italy: Rizzoli; Holland: Oog & Blik • FEBRUARY 2011 • $9.95 USD/$10.50 CDN • B/W 4 1/4” X 5 1/2” • 56 PAGES • COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/HUMOR • ISBN: 978-1-77046-034-8 • HARDCOVER
MID-LIFE by Joe Ollmann
CANADIAN AUTHOR
Mid-Life is the story of a 40-year-old man, John, who becomes a father again with his much-younger second wife, resulting in a slow, painful attack on his former virility and self identity. John believes that age is a state of mind. However, his adult daughters, baby son, energetic wife, stressful job, house full of cats, and flabby body all lead John to admit reluctantly that he is having a mid-life crisis. Although the crisis drives John to yell at his wife, pick fights with his daughters and miss deadlines at work that put his job on the line, he finds comfort in the pretty children’s performer, Sherry Smalls, who sings adoringly to him directly from his son’s DVD.
World Rights Available Excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly • MARCH 2011 • $19.95 USD/$20.95 CDN B/W • 6” X 9” • 184 PAGES • COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-028-7 • PAPERBACK
REUNION by Pascal Girard
CANADIAN AUTHOR
Reunion is a semiautobiographical book that recounts when Pascal Girard received an invitation to attend his ten-year high-school reunion. Initially dismissing the idea of attending, he changes his mind when he receives an e-mail from Lucie Coté, the girl he had a huge crush on in high school, asking if he would accompany her. Pascal gets flustered with joy, but two problems remain: he must keep his almost uncontrollable infatuation a secret from his girlfriend, Julie, and he must do something about his weight, which is at 252 pounds. Reunion is laugh-out-loud funny, with wry, self-deprecating humor. English World Rights Available Excluding: North America: Drawn & Quarterly • APRIL 2011 • $19.95 USD/$20.95 CDN B/W • 6 1/2” X 8 3/4” • 152 PAGES • COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS/LITERARY • ISBN: 978-1-77046-037-9 • PAPERBACK
DRAWN & QUARTERLY Fall 2011 Catalogue DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY RAINCOAST BOOKS • 800.663.5714 • raincoast.com DISTRIBUTED IN THE US BY FSG • 888.330.8477 • fsgbooks.com DISTRIBUTED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM BY PGUK • 020.8804.0400 • pguk.co.uk FOR FOREIGN PUBLISHING RIGHTS: contact Samantha Haywood of TLA sam@tla1.com FOR PUBLICITY AND OTHER QUERIES: PEGGY BURNS publicity@drawnandquarterly.com