Guy Delisle, Nick Drnaso, and Benji Nate headlined Drawn & Quarterly’s San Diego Comic-Con announcements, along with a collection of Ray Billingsley’s Curtis newspaper strips and two new manga licenses.
Guy Delisle’s Plan of Occupancy depicts the grief of a father and son who have only one image of their dead wife and mother, one that is painted on a building that is about to be renovated. The graphic novel is adapted from a novella by Jean Echenoz that the French newspaper Le Monde called “a little marvel.” Delisle’s biography of Eadweard Muybridge (see “Muybridge Bio“) was nominated for a 2026 Eisner Award.
Zoo Animal, by Nick Drnaso, is a sinister workplace drama set at a struggling zoo, where the cheery exterior belies the evil behind the scenes. Drnaso’s Sabrina was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a Booker Prize (see “Nick Drnaso“).
Girl Juice 2: Now with 100% More Juice, by Benji Nate, is a follow-up to Nate’s Harvey-nominated slice-of-life comedy about four twentysomething roommates, one hip, one sexy, one a wannabe social media influencer, and one who is the responsible one, who share a house and a zest for life.
Curtis is a retrospective of Ray Billingsley’s newspaper strip, which has chronicled the everyday life of a Black family for almost 40 years. The book includes interviews, previously unpublished art, and a selection of classic strips from the first 20 years of the comic.
Miss Hokusai, by Hinako Segura, is a historical manga set in the Edo period that presents the fictionalized story of O-Ei, the daughter of the famed artist Hokusai, who was an apprentice in his studio.
Marmalade Princess, by Ito Shigeo, is a collection of short slice-of-urban-life stories that were published in alt-manga magazines in the 1980s.
At the ComicsPRO Retailer Day talks, D&Q’s Francine Yulo highlighted two fall manga.
Sassy Cats, by Yamada Murasaki, is a collection of stories of daily life told from the point of view of two house cats. The stories first ran in the alt-manga magazine Garo.
A Lullaby from Hell is the first of two collections of horror stories by Hideshi Hino, a master of horror manga. Dark Horse published a collection titled Lullabies from Hell in 2006 (see “Dark Horse to Focus on Horror Manga“), and the small manga publisher Star Fruit Books has published several of his titles, but for the most part Hino has been out of the limelight for over a decade. This may be about to change “Horror is big right now,” Yulo said in the ComicsPRO meeting, “and we’re talking about cute and gross at the same time. Hideshi Hino was the master of that.”
Click Gallery below for covers!
Source: ICv2
