Date 2000 - present | ||
Main characters Louis, FC, Clean & Jerk Publisher Metaphrog / Fat Cat Records Writers metaphrog, John Chalmers Artists metaphrog, Sandra Marrs Books Louis - Red Letter Day, Louis - The Clown's Last Words, Louis - Lying to Clive, Louis - Dreams Never Die | ||
Louis is a graphic novel series created by metaphrog, the Franco-Scottish duo Sandra Marrs and John Chalmers.
Contents
Series overview
Louis is an unasumming worker who lives in Hamlet with his companion FC (short for Formulaic Companion), his pet mechanical bird. He spends his days filling bottles with air, making fruit, and writing to imaginary aunts. His neighbours Clean and Jerk often try to get him into trouble.
In The Guardian, Julie Burchill has said of Louis that he is the "most adorable character", while The Comics Journal wrote: "Louis himself is cut from the same cloth as Charlie Brown and Jimmy Corrigan".
i-D described Louis - Red Letter Day thus: "With squibs for eyes and delicately inked circles for nose and mouth, Louis' reduced features magically express a life spent daydreaming, writing letters to possibly fictional aunts and reading signs that say 'you look like a potato'. Infused with shadowless light and written in precisely elusive balloons Louis - Red Letter Day is a seriously spaced enigma from Metaphrog aka Glaswegian cult artists John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs. Like nothing else around."
Six graphic novels have been released so far. Their fourth, Louis - Dreams Never Die, was released in 2004 in association with the UK based label Fat Cat Records. For this, Hey (from Berlin) and múm (from Iceland) wrote two music tracks inspired by the Louis books, and metaphrog made a special short animation. The result was a multimedia project with a graphic novel and cd/blue vinyl 7".
In 2011, they redrew and repainted Louis - Red Letter Day and this new version was published in hardback.
Publication history
Awards and recognition
Louis is a multiple Eisner Award and Ignatz Award nominee. Louis - The Clown's Last Words was nominated for an Ignatz Award, while Louis - Red Letter Day was nominated for the 2001 Ignatz Award for "Promising New Talent" and the 2000 Eisner Awards for "Best Title for a Younger Audience" and "Best Graphic Album - New". In 2011, Louis - Night Salad was nominated for an Eisner Award for "Best Coloring", was Highly Commended for the Scottish Children's Book Awards, was shortlisted for the Leeds Graphic Novel Awards, and was longlisted for the YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens.