With 2022 coming to a close, let’s take stock of what an outstanding year this has been for D+Q. This year we published bestselling titles by Tom Gauld and Nick Drnaso, and released the graphic memoir of the decade, Kate Beaton’s Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands. Our books found glowing praise in The New Yorker, New York Times, and NPR, to name a few. We published 30 graphic novels in total including works from emerging writers, legacy comics from iconic cartoonists, masterpieces of nonfiction, LGBTQ narratives, career retrospectives, and more.
Kate Beaton blew everyone away with her gripping memoir Ducks that details her experiences leaving the maritimes to work in Canada’s oil sands for two years. Her visceral storytelling and searing socio-political criticism on class, working conditions, and displacement earned her a sustained presence on Canadian and American bestseller lists. She was profiled in The New Yorker, New York Times, and Vulture, interviewed on NPR, The World, and CBC Radio Q, and Ducks received a spot on Time Magazine’s Top 100 Books of the year.
Tom Gauld’s Revenge of the Librarians brought levity to readers as it teased both the highs and lows of literature. Tom earned nods from The AV Club, Library Journal, and Print Magazine. Acting Class, the long-awaited followup to Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina, was called “a wholly unsettling masterclass in disquiet” by The Independent and a brilliant distillation of “21st-century anomie and alienation” by Rachel Cooke for The Guardian.
We also published incredible works featuring LGBTQ narratives. Emma Grove’s debut memoir The Third Person captured readers’ attention with its 900-page telling of the trans author’s experiences trying to access gender-affirming healthcare. Rave, Jessica Campbell’s breakout novel, depicted queer love unfolding between two highschool girls amid the encroaching domination of an evangelical community. The Con Artists by Luke Healy (which The Guardian called one of the best graphic novels ever) centered around a gay comedian visited by a queer best friend who seems to have it all figured out until the facade breaks. Finally, Walk Me to The Corner by Anneli Furmark (translated by Hanna Stromberg) painted a heartbreaking love story between two mature women who are enwrapped by love and yet still tethered to their former lives.
Debut author Emily Carrington brought forth Our Little Secret, an impactful graphic memoir about childhood sexual assault, the injustices of the legal system, and healing through art. Another emerging author, Rumi Hara, came out with her second short story collection The Peanutbutters Sisters & Other American Stories. Turning reality on its head, Rumi employed magical realism and social criticism to produce stories of immigration and identity. Lastly, we published Hummingbird Heart, the second book in a planned series of memoirs by Travis Dandro that follows his Lynd Ward Prize-winning novel King of King Court.
Speaking of awards, it was quite a year. Julie Doucet won the Grand Prix at Angoulême! The Third Person by Emma Grove was nominated for an Ignatz Award and, along with Ducks, it was nominated for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Rumi Hara’s The Peanutbutter Sisters was nominated for an Ignatz in the category of Outstanding Collection, and Birds of Maine by Michael DeForge won an Ignatz for webcomics.
In 2022, we had a good laugh. Keiler Roberts came back with two hilarious books: The Joy of Quitting and Creepy. Artist by Yeong-shin Ma, the author of Moms, followed the lives of three backstabbing creatives trying to make a name for themselves while always seeming to find the time for binge drinking.
We published captivating nonfiction like Putin’s Russia by Darryl Cunningham and Movements and Moments, a project made in partnership with the Goethe Institute. Movements collected lovingly-crafted stories of Indigenous revolutions lead by women and non-binary individuals.
This year our legacy cartoonists got the spotlight! We reprinted the classic Ernie Pook’s Comeek strips by Lynda Barry in hardcover editions. We released Time Zone J by the imitable Julie Doucet. Guy Delisle came out with World Record Holders (translated by Helge Dascher & Rob Aspinall), and we published our first vinyl record—an experimental interpretation of Seth’s George Sprott by cellist and composer Mark Haney—Omnis Temporalis. Later in the year, we released the retrospective of Geneviève Castrée’s work curated by her widower Phil Elverum, translated by Elverum and Aleshia Jensen. Geneviève Castrée: Complete Works 1981-2016 is an immersive collection of the artist’s stunning creations including Susceptible, A Bubble, rarely- or never-seen illustrations and comics, album covers, photographs, and studio scraps.
Last but not least, this was a year in which translated material took centre stage. We re-designed Shigeru Mizuki’s Showa: A History of Japan series as well as Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths translated by Zack Davisson. The wonderful translator Janet Hong brought another Yeong-shin Ma creation to the English-speaking world with Artist. And Ryan Holmberg translated Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki, which was featured in The New York Times.
Just a gentle reminder to folks to support your local independent bookstores and comic shops. Thank you to our readers and to our cartoonists for another record-setting year.
Please enjoy our 2022 catalogue.
Come Over Come Over by Lynda Barry — February 8, 2022
Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator by Darryl Cunningham — February 15, 2022
Our Little Secret by Emily Carrington — March 15, 2022
Walk Me to the Corner by Anneli Furmark, translated by Hanna Strömberg — March 22, 2022
Mr. Colostomy by Matthew Thurber — March 29, 2022
Rave by Jessica Campbell — April 12, 2022
Time Zone J by Julie Doucet — April 19, 2022
The Third Person by Emma Grove — May 3, 2022
The Peanutbutter Sisters & Other American Stories by Rumi Hara — May 17, 2022
Hummingbird Heart by Travis Dandro — May 31, 2022
The Con Artists by Luke Healy — June 7, 2022
Omnis Temporalis by Seth and Mark Haney — June 14, 2022
My Perfect Life by Lynda Barry — June 14, 2022
Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki, translated by Ryan Holmberg — July 12, 2022
Birds of Maine by Michael DeForge — August 2, 2022
World Record Holders by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher & Rob Aspinall — August 9, 2022
Acting Class by Nick Drnaso — August 16, 2022
It’s So Magic by Lynda Barry — September 6, 2022
Ducks by Kate Beaton — September 13, 2022
Showa 1926-1939 by Shigeru Mizuki, transl. by Zack Davisson — October 11, 2022
Showa 1939-1944 by Shigeru Mizuki, transl. by Zack Davisson — October 11, 2022
Showa 1944-1953 by Shigeru Mizuki, transl. by Zack Davisson — October 11, 2022
Showa 1953-1989 by Shigeru Mizuki, transl. by Zack Davisson — October 11, 2022
Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths by Shigeru Mizuki, transl. by Jocelyne Allen — October 11, 2022
Geneviève Castrée: Complete Works 1981-2016 by Geneviève Castrée, translated by Phil Elverum & Aleshia Jensen — October 18, 2022
Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld — October 18, 2022
The Joy of Quitting by Keiler Roberts — October 25, 2022
Creepy by Keiler Roberts — October 25, 2022
Artist by Yeong-shin Ma, translated by Janet Hong — November 1, 2022
Movements & Moments by Various — November 15, 2022