Lucille Follows Blankets From Top Shelf

Top Shelf Productions has a penchant for putting out unique works. Some of their more popular books include Blankets, Essex County and Swallow Me Whole. Their newest title, Lucille, follows two teenagers in Lucille and Arthur. The two of them are struggling with complex legacies inherited from their families that include illness and pride, and despair and hope.

It was originally published in France and now marks the English-language debut for Ludovic Debeurme. Lucille features themes of anorexia, alcoholism and adolescence and is even rife with the awkwardness of life and has won René Goscinny Prize and the Angoulême Essential Award. It sounds depressing but shouldn't a book challenge you? The 544 page (!) deluxe softcover with french flaps comes in at 6.625" x 8.875"

Comic shops and bookstores that sell out of LUCILLE can re-order with the Diamond code FEB11-1168 or the ISBN 978-1-60309-073-5, and you can check out LUCILLE at the Top Shelf site here.

Full press release and a video introduction to the title after the jump.

In the tradition of BLANKETS, ESSEX COUNTY, and SWALLOW ME WHOLE comes the next literary masterpiece from Top Shelf Productions: LUCILLE by Ludovic Debeurme.

With the book arriving in stores worldwide this week, we present a video introduction to Ludovic Debeurme and his masterful book LUCILLE, featuring interviews and musical performances by Ludovic as well as praise from fans like Joseph Ghosn, editorial director of GQ/Vogue/Glamour France, and Angouleme Grand Prix winner Charles Berberian (directed by Victor Claude):



Description:

Originally published in France to overwhelming critical acclaim, including the René Goscinny Prize and the Angoulême Essential Award, LUCILLE is the English-languge debut for Ludovic Debeurme, a young master of cartooning. It's a love story full of tragedy and hope, following two teenagers who cling to each other amid illness and grief. Arthur is suffocating under the painful legacy of his alcoholic father, but when he encounters shy Lucille in a treatment center for anorexia, they form an instant connection and set off for a journey across Europe, hoping against all odds to make their own destiny.

Comic shops and bookstores that sell out of LUCILLE can re-order with the Diamond code FEB11-1168 or the ISBN 978-1-60309-073-5, and you can check out LUCILLE at the Top Shelf site here.

And here's what people are already saying about LUCILLE:

"As the story develops, the characters become more complex and the art more gracefully realistic... It evokes great sympathy for its characters, young and old." -- Library Journal

"Moving and rich." -- GQ France

"The characters are remarkable... Debeurme gets underneath what makes these young lovers tick, and is realistic enough to realize that they're too inexperienced and impulsive to fix each other. Still, the love affair in Lucille burns bright, illuminating two lives." -- The AV Club

"Lucille impresses as much by the power of its drawing as by the subtlety of its dialogue and plotting... it alternates tender moments of joy with scenes that evoke tears... Tremendous." -- Didier Pasamonik, ActuaBD

"Lucille is a credit to Top Shelf's catalog of impressive graphic novels and deserves the attention of readers wanting some of the most innovative sequential art published today." -- Graphic Novel Reporter

"For a story about the search for freedom, to be yourself, Debeurme's approach makes the most of the freedom of the comics medium. ...It's a wonderful, satisfying experience in itself to read and savour and easily one of the truly unmissable bande dessinée translations of the year." -- Paul Gravett, author of Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life

"The type of story the graphic novel was meant for." -- Playback:STL