Pascal Girard

A hilarious romantic comedy about kleptomania and booklovers Pascal is in a bad place. He and his longtime girlfriend have just broken up, he's got writer's block, and when he goes out for a run to ease his frazzled nerves, he falls and injures his back so badly that he's strictly forbidden from running. What's an endorphin-loving cartoonist to do? In a bid to distract himself, Pascal throws himself into his other pleasure: reading. And while at the bookstore one day, he spies a young woman picking up his own book. But then she darts out of the shop without paying. Bemused, he decides to figure out why she did it. Petty Theft is a comedy of errors, a laugh-out-loud account of a man on a mission, and a testament to the addictiveness of book ownership. Pascal Girard intermingles an all-too-true-to-life snapshot of contemporary relationships with slapstick trials and dryly funny tribulations in this delightfully readable book. From the award-winning author of Reunion, Petty Theft is a deftly told, finely drawn contemporary romance that will keep booklovers on the edge of their seats from the first page until the denouement.

Petty Theft

A HILARIOUS TALE OF THE DREADED HIGH-SCHOOL REUNION, INCLUDING DRASTIC WEIGHT LOSS, UNREQUITED LOVE, AND SHATTERED FANTASIES Reunion is a semiautobiographical book that recounts the events of the summer of 2009, when Pascal Girard received an invitation to attend his ten-year high-school reunion. Initially dismissing the idea of attending, he quickly changes his mind when he receives an e-mail from Lucie Coté, the girl he had a huge crush on in high school. She tells Pascal that she will be at the reunion and wonders if he would like to accompany her. Pascal becomes flustered with joy, but two problems remain: he must keep his almost uncontrollable infatuation a secret from his girlfriend, Julie, and he must do something about his weight. At 252 pounds, he frets that his weight will put him in the “loser” category among his former classmates, but most of all, he must do something to impress Lucie. He decides on a drastic plan of action: he takes up jogging every day until he reaches his goal of shedding fifty pounds. Three months pass as Pascal dutifully jogs and fantasizes about meeting Lucie, until finally he reaches his weight goal on the eve of the reunion. The now-slender Pascal arrives at the big event, full of fervent anticipation. However, one by one, his fantasies of moving into the “winner” category become cruelly deflated with each conversation he has with his former classmates. Girard has quickly emerged as one of the best under-thirty cartoonists in North America. Having started drawing comics only five years ago (he worked in construction until recently), Girard’s talent as both a writer and an artist has taken enormous strides with each new book he has created. Reunion is laugh-out-loud funny, with wry, self-deprecating humor, and Girard’s cartooning is effortless in its fluidity.

Reunion

Girard revisits the childhood death of his little brother in his most emotional and spare work Burdened with grief, confusion, and anger, Pascal Girard explores the childhood passing of his five-year-old brother. Girard delves into the emotional repercussions of this life-changing trauma, from his memories as a nine-year-old struggling to understand up until the present day, twenty-five years after the shattering loss. At the heart of Nicolas lies the question shared by most undergoing bereavement: Why? This confusion multiplies for a young boy with few answers to his questions, lacking even a basic explanation of the cause of his brother's departure. As sorrow and guilt are muffled by time and the flurry of even the most typical childhood and adolescence, this is a story of grief not grieved, and a glimpse into the ongoing process of reckoning. Pascal struggles to reconcile the magnitude of this tragedy with the minutiae of his daily experience of loss. Nicolas is a delicate, minimalist portrait of the many faces of mourning, identified with surprising humor and pathos by an artist who knows them intimately. Originally published in a micro-run ten years ago, Girard creates new comics and an introduction that contemplate the larger effect of Nicolas's death on his current behaviors and habits. With masterful visual restraint, Girard pens a work of great honesty and integrity: Nicolas resonates long after the book is closed, the weight of the story echoing closely the heft of the personal loss.

Nicolas

Yves Pelletier

"- Je change de job, je fais des heures de fou pour payer la maison, puis elle, elle flaube 600 dollars de gogosses au pet-shop. Pour un chat qui lui appartient même pas. - 600 piastres!? - En plus, c'est rendu qu'elle l'appelle "bébé". C'est mon p'tit nom à moi ça, "bébé". - Je pensais que ça t'énervait qu'elle t'appelle de même. - Oui, mais ça m'énerve encore plus qu'elle l'appelle par mon p'tit nom qui m'énerve."

Valentin

Stéphane Dompierre

Suite de courtes histoires humoristiques (une page, quatre cases) qui content les aventures d'un jeune écrivain qui, pour peu qu'il arrive à dompter son ordinateur, arrivera peut-être à compléter son premier roman. Dessin minimaliste. [SDM].

Souffrir pour écrire

Suite de courtes histoires humoristiques (une page, quatre cases) qui content les aventures d'un jeune écrivain qui a maintenant franchi la barre du premier roman, mais qui a maille à partir avec l'ordinateur et le monde des communications. Dessin minimaliste. [SDM].

Jeunauteur

A mat-leave murder mystery, complete with post-partum physiotherapy and suspicious grocery store footage Translated by Aleshia Jensen Rebecca’s got an eight-month-old baby and a mystery to investigate! Late one summer night as she’s breastfeeding Lucie, she spots two men carrying something heavy into a white minivan. It’s probably nothing serious, but when Rebecca hears that a home health care provider named Eduardo Morales disappeared from the neighbourhood that very night, she puts her detective hat on and gets to work. Over the course of the subsequent weeks, Rebecca juggles motherhood and detective work—alternating between unproductive visits with the Simard family, for whom the missing Eduardo worked, and tearful visits to potential daycares for Lucie. She faces down inconclusive interviews with evasive subjects and inconveniently timed diaper changes. Pascal Girard’s observational humor and perfect timing shine through each page, highlighting how Rebecca’s (over)confident, brash approach gets results, not just with the troublesome Simards but with everyone in her life. Rebecca and Lucie in the Case of the Missing Neighbor is a lighthearted maternity leave mystery that centers a new mother in all her postpartum glory.

Rebecca and Lucie in the Case of the Missing Neighbor

A maternity leave murder mystery, complete with postpartum physiotherapy and suspicious grocery store footage Rebecca’s got an eight-month-old baby and a mystery to investigate! Late one summer night as she’s breastfeeding Lucie, she spots two men carrying something heavy into a white minivan. It’s probably nothing serious, but when Rebecca hears that a home health care provider named Eduardo Morales disappeared from the neighbourhood that very night, she puts her detective hat on and gets to work. Over the course of the subsequent weeks, Rebecca juggles motherhood and detective work—alternating between unproductive visits with the Simard family, for whom the missing Eduardo worked, and tearful visits to potential daycares for Lucie. She faces down inconclusive interviews with evasive subjects and inconveniently timed diaper changes. Pascal Girard’s observational humor and perfect timing shine through each page, highlighting how Rebecca’s (over)confident, brash approach gets results, not just with the troublesome Simards but with everyone in her life. Rebecca and Lucie in the Case of the Missing Neighbor is a lighthearted maternity leave mystery that centers a new mother in all her postpartum glory.

Pascal Girard

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