Clyde Fans - Softcover

Seth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1770464867 ISBN 13: 9781770464865

Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly, 2021

Synopsis

The first graphic novel ever nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize! Legendary Canadian cartoonist Seth s magnus opus Clyde Fans, two decades in the making, appeared on twenty best of 2019 lists, including those from the New York Times, the Guardian, and Washington Post, and was nominated for an Eisner Award and the Giller Prize. Clyde Fans peels back the optimism of mid-twentieth century capitalism, showing the rituals, hopes, and delusions of a vanished middleclass garrulous self-made men in wool suits extolling the virtues of their wares to taciturn shopkeepers. Much like the myth of an ever-growing economy, the Clyde Fans family business is a fraud. The patriarch has abandoned it to mismatched sons, one who strives to keep the company afloat and the other who retreats into his memories. Abe and Simon Matchcard are brothers, struggling to save their archaic family business selling oscillating fans in a world switching to air conditioning. Simon flirts with becoming a salesman as a last-ditch effort to leave the protective walls of the family home, but is ultimately unable to escape Abe s critical voice in his head. As Clyde Fans Co. crumbles, so does the relationship between the two men, who choose very different life paths but both end up utterly unhappy. Seth s intimate storytelling and gorgeous art allow cityscapes and detailed period objects to tell their own stories as the brothers struggle to find themselves suffocating in an airless home.

About this title

About the Author

Seth is the cartoonist behind the comic book series Palookaville, which started as a pamphlet and is now a semi-annual hardcover. His comics have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Best American Comics, and McSweeneys Quarterly. His illustrations have appeared in numerous publications including the cover of the New Yorker, the Walrus, and Canadian Notes and Queries. He is Lemony Snicket s partner for the series All the Wrong Questions. He designs several classic comics reprint series, notably collections of work by Charles Schulz, John Stanley, and Doug Wright. He was the subject of a National Film Board documentary entitled Seth s Dominion. Seth lives in Guelph, Canada, with his wife Tania and two cats in a house he has named Inkwell s End.

From the Back Cover

The first graphic novel ever nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize!

Edition details

• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770464867
• ISBN 13: 9781770464865
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 492