This didn’t work for me. It was difficult to get into. It just didn’t seem to have a point. The artwork was good but I needed more details.

3.5/5

I thought Sunday was a very interesting graphic novel. In this graphic novel we're taken through Sunday in the life of the author's cousin. This Sunday is especially important because it's the day his girlfriend is returning from a trip. This graphic novel is the perfect look at the mundaneness of every day life. It's a great look at the ordinary lives of ordinary people.

If you're into slice of life graphic novels I definitely recommend checking this out.

Thank you to Netgalley and Fantagraphics for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Ended up being a bit too European man congratulates himself for how smart he is for my personal taste, but ymmv!

Ever so beautiful a read. My grateful thanks to the publisher and the author for sharing this advance reader's copy.

Publishing date: 15.10.2024
Thank you to Netgalley and Fantagraphics Books for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

This won't follow my usual template as the ARC I received was only partial (intentional).

I believe that this comic has great potential for the right readers. It has a little bit of madness, the weirdness and crudeness of everyday life, and that intimate and personal touch.
I also sadly think this might be a huge miss for usual comic and graphic book readers as it doesn't follow the normal template and storytelling people are so used to. For me, this is great, I love a bit of experimenting. The strange "soundtrack" in the background of the story, the slow pacing ...

This is for me and I will be picking it up at release to see where it takes me. For now, a little hard to recommend as I don't know where it ends up.

Temporary 3 stars for the potential, pending final review at release date (or later ...)

I sadly had to dnf this one about halfway through. I honestly just don’t think I’m the right person for this book. Although I could see the right person finding this very interesting.

schrauwen adequately captures the ennui of the day to day in this graphic novel, structuring the text in a way that is both fragmented and multidimensional. the mundanity of it all really lets the reader settle in with the sparseness of the text and process thibault's day alongside him.

Absolutely hilarious! I had no expectations when I picked this up, and the intro made me very curious. An exploration of a mundane Sunday in the life of just one - sorta random - person? Oh well, this is done in great style, and the first two parts covered in the E-arc made me laugh out loud and be really amazed at how deeply intrusive one can go through another’s thoughts. Very excited for what’s coming next!

I really liked what I read in this excerpt. The juxtaposition of the thoughts and the imagery was frequently funny and sometimes tense. However, because it's only an excerpt I can't review it here, or on GoodReads.

Sunday is a fairly typical indie literary comic. Interesting layout and art but doesn't do anything new for the genre/format (not that it has to). Aside from being unremarkable, it's just annoying. All unlikeable male characters living in their mundane worlds. Because the characters, primarily the main character, are unlikeable, the repetition for art sake just grates at the senses. And in the end, there's no completion or resolution.

There are as many styles of graphic novels as there are creators of them. Some of them meet your taste more than others so it's not always so easy to write a fair review of them.

This said, I have to admit, that I was a bit disappointed in "Sunday". The exract I read was a lot of what I personally don't like - the style is not my taste at all. The storyline sounded interesting in the premise, but turned out quite weird.

It might be perfect to other readers, it just wasn't my taste.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Fantagraphics Books for an advanced copy of part of this graphic novel that looks at the thoughts of one man on a day that so much happens on, but that he misses almost entirely.

I am friends with a book collaborator who helps people craft their life stories into memoirs. This person has worked with a diverse cast of artists, in many different mediums. Many he say are easy to talk to and have great stories about the things people know about them. But, my writer friend says that have little idea about the other things that make people interested. How did the grow up, what is their daily routine. Even favorite meals. Who would care, they usually tell my writer friend, before going into a retelling of a story seen on hundreds of talk shows. Many people care. Socrates might have said, The unexamined life is not worth living, and this is true. The minutes that make up a dull day, are sometimes more interesting than the big deals. Especially when presented as well as a day in the life is shown in this graphic novel Sunday by Olivier Schrauwen.

I was gifted only the first one hundred pages but pretty much have an idea how the comic will go. The comic is told in blocks of time featuring a fictional telling of Thibault, the author's cousin. Thibault awakens, drifts off, awakens again, drifts off, sleeping through snoozes and even other things that might make him awaken. Soon James Brown is stuck in his head, Get on up, and Thibault tries to get up, thinking he has no real breakfast and he might have to go out for pastries. Thibault is having a birthday soon, and this idea floats in his head for a minute, before thoughts of his girlfriend's return make him start thinking of a good text to send her. However before that he checks his email, and finds a passive aggressive note from a client. Which maddens him, but he understands their frustration. Soon Thibault sends a text to his girlfriend, one he thinks is cool, and doesn't sound needy. And the day goes on, with mice, neighbors, a friend making an appearance, while Thibault's mind wanderers all over..

Again I only received copies of the first one hundred pages, but I loved this comic. I am a fan of autofiction, and this graphic novel reminded me very much of the novel Autoportrait, by Jesse Ball a book that I just loved. The layout is great, the way it is broken into blocks, how other events happen, and the way that Schrauwen makes Thibault even at his oddest, or more primal still interesting is a real skill. The art is wonderful, dreamy and yet very real. The scene following Thibault's brief text across the waters to his girlfriend's phone seems so simple, but shows in a way the rich life that she is living, and one wonders why she would be in a hurry to come home to such a person.

A wonderful use of the graphic medium, with a story that grip almost from the beginning, though nothing really happens. I eagerly await this story, as the writer made me want to know more, and also read more works by this talented creator.

Sunday is a book-in-progress by Belgian comics master Olivier Schrauwen I was lucky to find on Net Galley. Thanks to the author, Fantagraphics and Net Galley for the early look of a book scheduled to be published 19/15/2024. I should say I am a big fan of Schrauwen's work, and one much of it, so I was excited to read it, inclined to like it. And I did, or do! The book is like many of Schrauwen's work formally experimental, an investigation of how story can happen in a comics medium. This story is a fictionalized version of one day in the life of his cousin, Thibault. It's not a remarkable day; rather, it is a typical day for this loner. Not much happens. The mundane happens, as Thibault thinks, listens to music, does a bit of work, checks his phone, drinks coffee, watches tv.

Se we know books that try to "capture" human consciousness. Think Joyce, Woolf. Joyce's long Ulysses is an attempt to detail on wakign day in the life of a Dubliner. Proust's' autofictional story dealing, for instance, in something like 50 pages, a couple hours of a boy as he goes to bed. In comics we have. daily diary comics; you catalogue whether anything remarkable happens or not. A commentary on life: it's mostly mundane and not epic for most of us every day. Joyce calls his novel of a mundane Dublin day Ulysses, which is to say a mock-epic title. The same title would work here, in a way. A quest!

Thibault listens to James Brown, drinks coffee, works a bit, thinks about sex quite a bit, masturbates, listens to music, obsesses about a relationship. Many small panels, highlighted by color. Otherwise, mostly random thoughts. One story is a little mopre surreal than another, but it is still feels "real" to human experience. I can't wait to read the whole thing. Would it appeal to folks who just like to read stories to be entertained? Thrillers? Probably not. But you get some insight into "the human condition" and comics here. I really like it.

4.5/5 rounded up to a 5. I’ve read and loved Parallel Lines from this author in the past. The interesting art style, humor, and weirdness of that work is expanded upon further in Sunday. While I didn’t love being in this guy's head that much, (a bit too much masturbation and penis for my taste) the punchline of the first section was worth it. And though there was a disclaimer in the beginning about the proper way to read the text, it was not nearly as hard as I thought it might be to navigate. All around very clever and as always an awesome art style. Thank you Fantagraphics!

i don't think i liked it. the idea is interesting for sure and while i like stories about ordinary people living ordinary life, this one lacked the "vibe", the necessary atmosphere that should be present in books "without plot". and i just didn't feel it. maybe it was because it only contained a sample of the full comic which is divided into four parts, two of those were available to me. if i had to point out one interesting thing, it'd be an art style and the colour palette the author chose. it does a great job showing how mundane and boring life can be sometimes (oftentimes). but even the art style can't help making a book engaging when the plot lacks. unfortunately i expected so much more since i liked the premise and i was intrigued but once i started reading the story very quickly killed my enthusiasm.