Media Release -- While this book has been twenty-five years in the making, it's really been at the forefront of our minds in the last few months. We've celebrated our anniversary at TCAF and MCAF (and will continue the party at London's ELCAF and San Diego Comic-Con), have had the company's history and future outlined in beautiful, thoughtful pieces in The Globe and Mail, The National Post, and The Montreal Gazette, and all nearly cried of joy when the books finally arrived in our office. And now the moment we've all been waiting for is here, and we're so happy to share all of this with you- Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels is in stores today! This amazing object is the result of so many people's hard work and passion and includes a ton (almost five pounds, anyway) of new and rare comics, essays, photographs, and more.
We've received some very kind words already:
"...an exuberantly entertaining anthology of short comics (many of them new) by almost all of the artists who have worked with the company over the years, from Kate Beaton's sly, brash gag strips about history and literature to Geneviève Castrée's tender sequence of self-portraits with blankets under which she's rested."—New York Times
"a jaw-dropping 800-page, full-colour anthology that serves as both company history and testament to everything accomplished since its first title."—The Globe and Mail
"A new full-colour anthology, staggering in its range and scope at nearly 800 pages, makes plain what many have long known: The company founded in 1990 by Montreal comics aficionado Chris Oliveros... is one of the finest independent literary publishers in the world, having established a brand that makes it not only influential in the golden age of graphic literature and non-superhero comics, but synonymous."—Montreal Gazette
"This giant tome collects [an array] of creative riches... rounded out by essays from established prose authors such as Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, and Lemony Snicket, celebrating the company and its groundbreaking talent. It's a history of one great company, but this volume also works as an essential guide to the development of alternative comics in all their glory."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"A magnificent monument."—Booklist, Starred Review
"Gorgeous, hilarious and uncompromisingly integral, this printed history certainly wasn't necessary to prove the magic D&Q has accomplished, but you can't help at marvel at the breadth of it when presented with such meticulous heart and passion."—Paste
"If you were looking for a primer for contemporary comic strips this is the perfect place to start, branching out from the autobiographical strips of Seth and Chester Brown to Marc Bell's queasy E-numbered surrealism and Genevieve Castree's gorgeous, intricate Blankets Are Always Sleeping, a strip that riffs on a repeated single-panel design full of duvets and anxiety, to the primary coloured simplicity of Anouk Ricard's comic... There is so much out there and so much of it is good."—Herald Scotland
Hardcover · 7" x 9" · 776 pages · full color · 9781770461994 · $59.95 CAD/$49.95 USD
Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels is an eight hundred-page thank-you letter to the cartoonists whose steadfast belief in a Canadian micro-publisher never wavered.
With hundreds of pages of comics by Drawn & Quarterly cartoonists, D+Q: 25 features new work by Kate Beaton, Chester Brown, Michael DeForge, Tom Gauld, Miriam Katin, Rutu Modan, James Sturm, Jillian Tamaki, Yoshihiro Tatsumi alongside rare and never-before-seen work from Guy Delisle, Debbie Drechsler, Julie Doucet, John Porcellino, Art Spiegelman, and Adrian Tomine, and a cover by Tom Gauld. Editor Tom Devlin digs into the company archives for rare photographs, correspondence, and comics; assembles biographies, personal reminiscences, and interviews with key D+Q staff; and curates essays by Margaret Atwood, Sheila Heti, Jonathan Lethem, Deb Olin Unferth, Heather O'Neill, Lemony Snicket, Chris Ware, and noted comics scholars.
D+Q: 25 is the rare chance to witness a literary movement in progress; how a group of dedicated artists and their publisher changed the future of a century-old medium.
