Daniel Clowes returns with new graphic novel MONICA from Fantagraphics

It’s been seven years since Patience, the sci-fi love story graphic novel from indy comics legend Daniel Clowes, was released by Fantagraphics. Today the publisher announced a new book from Clowes, Monica, will release in October. The graphic novel presents readers with the biography of titular character Monica through a series of interconnected stories.

Fantagraphics announced the new book in a social media post earlier this afternoon:

Monica is a series of interconnected narratives that collectively tell the life story — actually, stories — of its title character. Clowes calls upon a lifetime of inspiration to create the most complex and per – sonal graphic novel of his distinguished career. Rich with visual detail, an impeccable ear for language and dialogue, and thrilling twists, Monica is a multilayered masterpiece in comics form that alludes to many of the genres that have defined the medium — war, romance, horror, crime, the supernatural, etc. — but in a mysterious, uncategorizable, and quintessentially Clowesian way that rewards multiple readings.

Five years in the making, Monica marks the apex of creativity from one of the defining voices of the graphic novel boom over the past quarter-century. A new book from Clowes is always a huge event in comics and literary circles; Monica will be the biggest literary event of 2023. 

A new book from Clowes, the multiple Harvey and Eisner Award-winning creator of Ghost World, Wilson, and The Death-Ray, is always an exciting occasion. In a statement announcing the new book, Fantagraphics Vice President Eric Reynolds expressed his enthusiasm at bringing Clowes’s latest work to readers later this year:

“Daniel Clowes had already created what might well be my favorite body of work in the medium’s history,” explains Fantagraphics Vice President Eric Reynolds. “But Monica raises his own bar even higher, as both a writer of fiction and as a cartoonist. It’s a masterpiece that is both utterly Clowes and unlike anything else I’ve ever read.”

Monica is available for preorder now, and is due out in stores on October 3rd. A signed edition limited to 250 copies is available exclusively through Fantagraphics’s website.

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