Idle Days

Depressed and unmoored by his father's violent death, and drafted into the Canadian military to serve in World War II, Jerome has fled, taking refuge in a cabin his grandfather owns in a remote part of the countryside.

But Jerome's troubles are only beginning. A strange dread fills the woods, and rumors of murders and ghosts cast his refuge in a sinister light. As Jerome struggles to come to terms with his father's death, he obsessively seeks to uncover the mystery of what, exactly, happened in his grandfather's house.

Simon Leclerc's haunting, expressionistic artwork brings to life a quiet, layered, and deeply literary story from writer Thomas Desaulniers-Brousseau, in a graphic novel that explores with tenderness and insight the wounds opened with the loss of a loved one.

Thomas Desaulniers-Brousseau was born in the Montreal suburb of Chambly. From 2012 to 2014, he drew and cowrote the webcomic Boire du mercure. His short stories have been long-listed in national contests. Idle Days will be his first published work.

Simon Leclerc is a 26-year-old illustrator from Montreal. He studied animation in Montreal, then moved to California to pursue animation studies at Calarts. He draws, storyboards, animates, and art directs on various projects like video games, movies, books, and advertisements.