Rachel Cooke’s best graphic novels of 2023
The Guardian | Rachel Cooke | December 3, 2023
Rachel Cooke praises three D+Q books in her Best Graphic Novels of 2023 list!
This hasn’t been a vintage year for comics; a certain grimness clung to many of those that came my way. But still, I read some good ones from big names and small, and Camille Jourdy’s beautiful and adorable Juliette ranks among the three books I most enjoyed in 2023, of whatever kind.
Blankets: 20th Anniversary Edition by Craig Thompson. Amazing to think it’s now two decades since Thompson published his groundbreaking autobiographical story set in the snowy midwest of America, a heartbreaking tale of faith and first love. Faber has done him proud with this beautiful, Bible-size new edition. Every home should have one.
Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. Two’s company and three is a crowd in this sassy account of college students away for the weekend in New York. Competing loyalties, burgeoning sexual attraction and the fractiousness born of trying to work out the subway: you’ll remember it all yourself, whether you’ve been to Manhattan or not.
Juliette by Camille Jourdy, translated by Aleshia Jensen. My favourite graphic novel of the year, this funny and gorgeously illustrated book about a depressed young woman who returns to the small French town where she grew up is one for fans of Posy Simmonds and Lizzy Stewart. Look out for the lover who arrives for afternoon sex disguised as a bear.
Blankets: 20th Anniversary Edition by Craig Thompson. Amazing to think it’s now two decades since Thompson published his groundbreaking autobiographical story set in the snowy midwest of America, a heartbreaking tale of faith and first love. Faber has done him proud with this beautiful, Bible-size new edition. Every home should have one.
Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. Two’s company and three is a crowd in this sassy account of college students away for the weekend in New York. Competing loyalties, burgeoning sexual attraction and the fractiousness born of trying to work out the subway: you’ll remember it all yourself, whether you’ve been to Manhattan or not.
Juliette by Camille Jourdy, translated by Aleshia Jensen. My favourite graphic novel of the year, this funny and gorgeously illustrated book about a depressed young woman who returns to the small French town where she grew up is one for fans of Posy Simmonds and Lizzy Stewart. Look out for the lover who arrives for afternoon sex disguised as a bear.