Elisabeth Belliveau & Aleisha Piercy make an instore appearance this Friday!

This Friday at 7pm, we're hosting a double launch for Aleisha Piercy's reversible novellas, Auricle / Icebreaker, and Elisabeth Belliveau's don’t get lonely don’t get lost, the follow-up to the great hopeful someday - a collection of artworks and texts that also comes with a DVD of her most recent animations.

For more info on Auricle / Icebreaker, click here - and to look at Elizabeth Belliveau's artworks, watch some of her animated work and read previews of her books, I invite you to visit her personal website!

FREEDOM!!!!

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. On sale today.

Cats Are Weird And More Observations

The follow-up to Jeffrey Brown's popular: Cat Getting Out Of Bag And Other Observations is finally in and judging by its interior it is set to be a Librairie Best Seller. In case you haven't seen the first installment, these books are mostly wordless accounts of feline idiosyncrasy. It will totally melt your heart (unless you hate cats).

Le Rayon de la Mort

Il est là! Le Rayon de la Mort de Daniel Clowes vient d'arriver! Il s'agit de la version française de The Death Ray, le 23ème et dernier opus de sa série Eightball - dans laquelle Clowes a d'abord publié Art School Confidential, Caricature, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, David Boring et Ghost World par exemple.

Paru originalement en 2004 chez Fantagraphics, The Death Ray est épuisé à ce jour, il n'y a donc aucune autre façon de se le procurer neuf, autrement qu'en version française... Heureusement, comme je le dis et le redis toujours, les éditions Cornélius font un boulot d'adaptation d'une qualité exceptionnelle - souvent même de facture supérieure aux versions originales!

Pour plus d'informations au sujet du livre, je vous invite à consulter cette excellente critique (en anglais) par notre ami Jeet Heer, ou à visionner la vidéo ci-dessous:

Au fait, histoire de faire rouler le moulin à rumeurs, Clowes aurait annoncé en 2006 qu'il écrivait le script d'une potentielle adaptation cinématographique du Rayon de la Mort, à être produite par la maison de production de l'acteur Jack Black...

Late summer on the Decarie Expressway

In honor of the new Nipper 1963-1964 book going to the printer this week, here's a sample that should be recognizable to most Montrealers. The cars are older and the concrete overpass is newer (and probably a lot safer), but otherwise the Decarie Expressway seemingly hasn't changed much.


Nipper, and Doug Wright in particular, reminds me of an interesting and possibly overlooked fact about Montreal and its surroundings. This city is full of many talented cartoonists and artists, but it's worth noting that at one time or another several of Montreal's suburbs were also home to many of this country's most notable, or soon-to-be notable, figures in the medium. Doug Wright lived and worked in Lachine (also the home base of Nipper for over half of its run); Chester Brown grew up in Chateauguay (where his books The Playboy and I Never Liked You are set); Julie Doucet spent her formative years in St. Lambert; and Michel Rabagliati grew up in St. Leonard (another childhood well-documented in comics, in his Paul series).

Jimmy Z!

When I first moved to Montreal to work at D+Q, the office was located on Parc Ave between the SAQ (liquor store) and a lingerie shop, aww comics. Thankfully, though, we were also neighbors with the Zoubris stationery store on Parc, owned by the incredibly kind and funny Zoubris family. Pictured here is the King of Mile End, the one and only Jimmy Z who may actually be the reason why Parc Ave is still named Park Ave. Someone give this man a radio show, weekly podcast or something! Here he is with his sister Demetra. This article in yesterday's Gazette, penned by another special Mile Ender, Sarah Gilbert, captures the dynamic multicultural cross section of the Mile End. On any given day, Mr. and Mrs. Zoubris (their parents) are in the store. I had no idea their names were Evangelos and Evangelina! Jimmy and Demetra's sister Vicki, also used to work there, and was sweet enough to give me a playpen when Gigi was born. Our neighborhood is great!

JEET EVERYBODY

This is Tonight, don't forget. This is a once in a lifetime chance to see Jeet talking comics at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly and this man knows his comics. Word on the street is that D&Q's own Tom Devlin and Chris O. are going to say a few things as well. Free event (as always).