Overview

Best Graphic Novels of 2024, The New York Times Best Graphic Novels of 2024, Washington Post Best Graphic Novels of 2024, The Guardian Sunday follows, over the course of one day, the stream of consciousness of a fictionalized version of the author's cousin, Thibault. On the day of his girlfriend's return from an extended trip, Thibault wakes up, does nothing, gets James Brown stuck in his head, drinks and smokes, grows paranoid about his relationship, struggles to compose text messages, and watches The Da Vinci Code, all the while avoiding anyone and everyone, descending deeper into his own thoughts and fears. Meanwhile, a former crush and another cousin of Thibault's plan a surprise birthday for him, sending the external and internal on a collision course. Schrauwen's brilliant comic timing and formal mastery transcends the quotidian nature of the plot. Through use of color, flashback and the dissonance between text and image, the ways in which Schrauwen layers a depiction of human consciousness as lines on paper are infused heavily with slapstick and white-knuckle tension and make for an exhilarating read and breathtaking use of the comics medium.

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9781683969679

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Reviews

[Schrauwen's] cinematic approach to storytelling invoking memory, uncertainty, degrees of importance, and changes in narrative direction ... make[s] for a compelling narrative with a surprising and redemptive ending.-- ""The Book Beat"" Original, unique, fascinating ... a surreal experience on paper, with a storytelling flair that raises Sunday to an impressive level of literary excellence.-- ""Midwest Book Review"" Schrauwen's vast graphic novel plumbs the depths of slapstick humor and scales dizzying philosophical heights.-- ""The New York Times"" A warts-and-all wonder about the joy and anxiety that can accompany doing nothing in particular.-- ""The Guardian"" In [Schrauwen's] hands, comics -- like great art or literature -- give us a window into another person's mind, and even petty and tedious ruminations can appear magical and strangely beautiful.-- ""The New Yorker"" A bored everyman does battle with the colossal enemy that is a dull Sunday in this epic mock-Proustian graphic novel from Belgian artist Schrauwen. ... [A] surprisingly touching and life-affirming portrait of indolence.-- ""Publishers Weekly Starred Review"" Awash in a surreal color palette, Sunday may be the most original and exciting graphic novel of the last decade. ... a surprisingly winning, witty read -- often funny and always fun.-- ""The Washington Post"" I would recommend Sunday to any readers after something a bit different and very experimental.-- ""The Newest Rant"" The Belgian cartoonist Olivier Schrauwen's latest graphic novel, Sunday, shows an already great artist reaching even greater heights.-- ""The Comics Journal"" Schrauwen's deepest work since Arsène Schrauwen. As sumptuous and meditative as its protagonist is self-absorbed and oblivious.--Helen Chazan The fact that Schrauwen can take something as mundane and average as a guy watching The Da Vinci Code on the couch and turn it into a profound meditation on artmaking, design, language, and meaning is not only envy-inducing but deserves sustained laudation.--Laura Paul

Master cartoonist and humorist putting everyone else to shame.--Austin English Sunday not only takes a most convincing whack at the portrayal of nothing less than human consciousness in comics form, it weaves strand after strand of narrative and anecdote into a book that ends up encompassing the life of an entire city district and social circle over one unremarkable yet epic day -- and winds up feeling a bit like a plainspoken, unostentatious comic book version of James Joyce's Ulysses by the end.--Matt Seneca Schrauwen's deepest work since Arsene Schrauwen. As sumptuous and meditative as its protagonist is self-absorbed and oblivious.--Helen Chazan The fact that Schrauwen can take something as mundane and average as a guy watching The Da Vinci Code on the couch and turn it into a profound meditation on artmaking, design, language, and meaning is not only envy-inducing but deserves sustained laudation.--Laura Paul

Author Information

Olivier Schrauwen was born in Belgium in 1977 and studied animation at the Academy of Art in Gent, and comics at ESA Saint-Luc in Brussels. He currently lives in Berlin. He is the author of the books The Man Who Grew His Beard (2011), Arsène Schrauwen (2014), Parallel Lives (2018), and Sunday (2024).

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