Spring 2022
Announcing Conundrum’s Spring 2022 Line-Up!
It always feels a little odd to be talking about spring right before the holidays, but some news just can’t wait. Spring 2022 is going to be an incredible season at Conundrum, with graphic novels from a couple of exciting debut creators, and a few of the artists we’ve all come to know and love.
First up (in April), we’ve got the Maritimes’ Jon Claytor with a stunning piece of work called Take the Long Way Home. At 460 pages, it’s a beautiful brick of a book. It’s also a celebration of art, friends, family, and hard-won sobriety, all wrapped up in a classic Canadian road-trip story.
In May, Shelterbelts by Winnipeg creator Jonathan Dyck will be hitting the shelves. Through a series of linked short stories, Dyck weaves a rich tapestry that depicts a close-knit Mennonite community in the midst of defining its future as it reckons with its past.
And what a month May will be! Because we’ll also be releasing The Weakly Dispatch, a COVID-19 memoir by Montreal’s alt-arts trailblazer, Rick Trembles. Hot on the heels of Trembles’ Represented Immobilized, The Weakly Dispatch a series of diary comics—and a COVID time-capsule. In his intro, R. Crumb calls it “highly entertaining reading.”
Then in June, we’ll have a new graphic novel from Ignatz-nominated artist Zoe Maeve. Maeve will follow up on the success of The Gift with July Underwater. It’s a gorgeous, fictional exploration of love, friendship, life, and death, featuring insightful reflection on the work of Patricia Highsmith and Virginia Woolf. Winner of Best English Comic at the 2016 Expozine Awards, this is the first time July Underwater will be released to a widespread audience.
But wait, there’s more! If you haven’t been following along with the release of our Conundrum 25 series, here’s what you need to know:
CONUNDRUM 25 is a landmark series of gemlike volumes, presenting masters of the graphic short story form at work in a range of styles. From precious rediscoveries to gender-playful fictions, fabulist futurism to uncanny imaginings, there are stories by a new generation of Conundrum artists alongside classics of the form. Bringing together past, present, and future in our 25th year and beyond, CONUNDRUM 25 is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.
In May, we’ll be adding Next Time Around by Billy Mavreas to the Conundrum25 collection! In this teensy title, the Montreal artist taps into his considerable talents in cartooning, collage, and graphic poetry to tell the dreamlike tale of a near-death experience and the insights that followed.