Comics / Press Releases

"Julio's Day" Coming from Gilbert Hernandez

By The Editor
February 5, 2013 - 16:01

Julio's Day cover image

Once upon a time…the end. What happens in the middle?

Julio's Day by Gilbert Hernandez follows the life of Julio, a tangentially related Love and Rockets character. On page 1 he is born; on the last page he dies. 100 pages for the 100 years of Julio's life. Gilbert takes us through the little moments in time that shape a man. Julio discovers the truth about his parents, comes to terms with his own sexuality, and experiences the effect war has on his small town. All of these discoveries are elegantly uncovered though Gilbert's subtle story telling.

Julio's Day
by Gilbert Hernandez
104-page black & white 7.5" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-606-5

In-store date: March 2013 (subject to change)

It begins in the year 1900, with the scream of a newborn. It ends, 100 pages later, in the year 2000, with the death rattle of a 100-year-old man. The infant and the old man are both Julio, and Gilbert Hernandez’s Julio’s Day (originally serialized in Love and Rockets Vol. II but never completed until now) is his latest graphic novel, a masterpiece of elliptical, emotional storytelling that traces one life — indeed, one century in a human life — through a series of carefully crafted, consistently surprising and enthralling vignettes.

There is hope and joy, there is bullying and grief, there is war (so much war — this is after all the 20th century), there is love, there is heartbreak. While Julio’s Day has some settings and elements in common with Hernandez’s Palomar cycle (the Central American protagonists and milieu, the vivid characters, the strong familial and social ties), this is a very much a singular, standalone story that will help cement his position as one of the strongest and most original cartoonists of this, or any other, century.

"Julio's Day is a story of one man's life, but it's a great deal more than that as well. It's the story of the life of a century, also told as if a day. Beginning with Julio's birth in 1900 and ending with his death in 2000, the graphic novel touches on most of the major events that shaped the 20th century." – Brian Evenson, from his introduction

"A haunting performance and about as perfect a literary work as I've read in years. Hernandez accomplishes in 100 pages what most novelists only dream of — rendering the closeted phlegmatic Julio in all his confounding complexity and in the process creating an unflinching biography of a community, a country and a century. A masterpiece." – Junot Díaz

ABOUT THE CARTOONIST: Gilbert Hernandez has been enrapturing readers with his Love and Rockets stories for over 30 years. He lives in Las Vegas, NV with his wife and daughter.

 

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12