Fantagraphics has announced the Fall 2023 release of Monica, the first original graphic novel by Daniel Clowes in more than half a decade. Monica is the most personal and ambitious book of his storied career.

Monica is a series of short, interconnected narratives that tell the life story — actually, stories — of its titular character. Clowes calls upon a lifetime of observation and artistic inspiration to create his most complex and sophisticated graphic novel yet. Rich visual detail, masterful graphic storytelling, and a novelist’s attention to the vernacular rhythm of language and dialogue combine with a plot full of surprising twists to create a multilayered masterpiece of the form that alludes to many of the genres that have defined the medium — war, romance, horror, crime, the supernatural, etc. — but in a mysterious, uncategorizable, and quintessentially Clowesian way that rewards multiple readings.

Six years in the making, Monica marks the creative apex of an artist whose generation of cartoonists has defined the literary graphic novel. A new book by Clowes is both cause for celebration among readers and a genuine literary event.

Monica is slated to release in October 2023.