Nicolas

Nicolas is a book by Pascal Girard.  Drawn and Quarterly recently donated a copy to our library.  A few months ago I went up to Montreal and picked this book up at the D & Q store.  I read it in about 10 minutes and then read it over and over again every night for a week(exaggerating).  Reasons why i love it.  It can make someone cry using such a small amount of lines.  It’s about Girard’s little brother who passed away from a bad disease when they were very little.  I have tingles up my back just thinking about this book.  It’s deceptively simple looking and you may ignore it on the shelf if you weren’t reading this.  It’s a good thing that you are reading this though.  Here.  I’ll open the pages for you.

Now wasn’t that splendid?

I tried to draw like Girard for a few weeks after reading this book.  I get irritated when this happens but I think I learned a lot about cartooning.  Girard has a gift for simplifying objects(especially people) that just makes me shiver.  He had a wonderful blog where he posts work form his sketchbook and stuff he is working on, including something about Bigfoot.  Thanks you for this book Mr. Girard.     — Chuck McBuck