San Diego Comic-Con International wraps today, and we are so excited to share our news from the con floor!
Congratulations are due to Lynda Barry, Kate Beaton, and Tom Gauld all of whom were honored in Friday night’s Eisner Award ceremony. Lynda Barry was awarded Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips for three books: Come Over, Come Over, It’s So Magic, and My Perfect Life. Ducks by Kate Beaton won twice: for Best Graphic Memoir and Best Writer-Artist and Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld won for Best Humor Publication. Congratulations to all the nominees!
During their “Focus on Drawn & Quarterly” panel Publisher Peggy Burns and Executive Editor Tom Devlin announced a slew of forthcoming books by the likes of Ray Billingsley, Tara Booth, Freddy Carrasco, and more, as well as Giant Robot: 30 Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture, edited by Eric Nakamura. Read on to learn about these amazing projects and more, scheduled for 2024, 2025, and 2026.
Curtis by Ray Billingsley
The greatest hits of Billingsley’s classic syndicated strip Curtis, about a Black middle-class family, come together in a brand-new collector’s edition. Featuring extensive interviews, supplementary writing, and never-before-seen early comics, Billingsley’s career takes center stage in this landmark career retrospective.
{Two Untitled Books} by Tara Booth
Riotous color and bodies abound in a collection of deeply personal comics loosely encircling mental health—discussing everything from sex and eating to body issues and social anxiety. A graphic novel will follow, tracing a life through its years via seven intense and boundary-less relationships, digging into attachment styles and what drives/shapes human need, painted in Booth’s expressive, vibrant strokes.
Firebugs by Nino Bulling
Sleepless nights fill with an endless scroll of images and headlines about climate disaster. A vague dysphoria simmers under Ingken’s skin. Everyone keeps telling them to burn themself to the ground and build themself back up but they worry about the kind of debris that fire might leave behind.
GLEEM by Freddy Carasco
Imbued with cyberpunk attitude and in the rebellious tradition of afrofuturism, GLEEM is drawn with a fierce momentum, hurtling towards a future world. Carrasco’s distinct cinematic style layers detailed panels and spreads, creating a multiplicity of perspectives, at once dizzying and hyptnotic.
{Untitled} by Caroline Cash
Chicago-based cartoonist Cash brings us a modern day tale of gay drama, in the vein of the time-honored stoner comedy of the early 00s.The full-length graphic novel follows Charlie—bookseller by day, clueless lesbian by night—and an equally eclectic cast of drug dealing coworkers, polyamorous hookups, and HAWT girls. This comic is for the girls, gays, gossips, and all you in-betweeners.
Milk White Steed by Michael D. Kennedy
Drawing in a multitude of styles, a bold new voice in comics brings a fresh, biting sense of humor and a gut wrenching emotionality to the table. Kennedy’s playful, touching, and irresistibly readable collection explores the West Indian immigrant experience in the UK.
The Flower’s Fault by Maria Medem (transl. Daniela Ortiz, and Aleshia Jensen)
In this vibrant translation from an internationally-lauded, in-demand Spanish illustrator and cartoonist, the land is barren and the village inhabited only by dogs and geckos, but a single flower grows, a memory of better times.
Giant Robot: 30 Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture edited by Eric Nakamura
In the mid-90s, pop culture phenomenon Giant Robot burst into the mainstream from the very margins of DIY press. It remains a touchstone for generations of underground and cutting-edge artists and remains an enduring testament to the influence of Asian-Amerians in the US.
Forces of Nature by Ed Steed
Everyone’s favourite New Yorker cartoonist cordially takes his seat at the table of comics greats. A 21st-century specialist of the single-panel gag, Steed brings a singular macabre wit back to the fore.