Drawn & Quarterly Twenty-five years of contemporary cartooning, comics, and graphic novels

*Starred Review* Drawn & Quarterly has stood at the vanguard of art comics for a quarter-century now, and this massive tome celebrates the Canadian publisher and its beloved chief, Chris Oliveros, who conceived of a comic company with literary and artistic aspirations. Oliveros, staff, and cartoonists are featured in essays, interviews, and photographs as well as appreciations by such literary luminaries as Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Lethem. For readers with no interest in any of that, though, it also brims with new and collected comics. The cartoonist list reads like a who's who of artists who have made independent comics what they are now and are defining where they're going: Beaton, Barry, Brown, Clowes, DeForge, Gauld, Hernandez, Spiegelman, Tomine, Ware . . . though that list barely scratches the surface. This is a magnificent monument to the diversity of aesthetic philosophies and personal styles, and if there's a prevalent theme, it's everyday indignities and how real people face them, even if these real people are occasionally zombies or superheroes. Even skipping the prose, this is a tall mountain to scale in one climb, but sampling and returning to it again and again affords an incomparable journey through comics' state of the art.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2015 Booklist

What better way to celebrate a quarter century spent publishing some of the world's finest comics and graphic novels than by releasing one massive book? This anthology is more than just a 776-page victory lap for D&Q. It's a celebration of the Montreal publisher's history and artists, and, most importantly, a return to the company's roots as a diverse anthology. This giant tome collects dozens of odds and ends from some of the industry's highest-profile names, including Dan Clowes, Lynda Berry, Chris Ware, and Art Spiegelman, along with homegrown Canadian talent such as Seth, Julie Doucet, Chester Brown, and Joe Matt. New works from the next generation of stars, including Jillian Tamaki and Kate Beaton, are even more striking. The array of creative riches is 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. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

For over two decades, Drawn & Quarterly (D&Q) has been a discerning publisher of graphic novels and a major force in the growth and diversification of the format. This quarter-century compendium is comprehensive in its coverage of the publisher's thoughtful rise to prominence. The tome begins with a detailed history of D&Q's humble beginnings in a Montreal apartment with a small stable of artists and very little money. Excerpts from works by D&Q pioneers such as Seth, Chester Brown, Julie Doucet, and Adrian Tomine, as well as relative newcomers such as Michael DeForge and Rutu Modan are interspersed with interviews, photographs, reminisces, and essays of mutual appreciation. Margaret Atwood pens an ode to Kate Beaton, for instance, among other treats. As you pore over the pieces herein, it becomes crystal clear how completely D&Q is Chris Oliveros's baby and how selective he and his small staff have been in what they publish. There is little here that is not in some way artistically highbrow or of distinct literary merit, which is wonderful but gets a bit monotonous when read at one go. On the other hand, open to any page at random, and you're sure to discover something curious, complicated, and utterly distinct. Verdict Amazing for idle browsing, a bit repetitive when taken as a whole, this volume is nonetheless a veritable encyclopedia on how the graphic novel became what it is today.-Emilia Packard, Austin, TX © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.