8.4 /10 1 Votes
Main characters Pim & Francie Originally published 2009 Date 2009 Publisher Fantagraphics Books | 4.2/5 Goodreads Creator Al Columbia Page count 240 Editor Eric Reynolds | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Al Columbia, Black Eye: Graphic Transmis, Footnotes in Gaza, Ghost World, From Hell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days is a 2009 book by Al Columbia. Subtitled "Artifacts and Bone Fragments", it is a scrapbook-like assemblage of illustrations, paintings, sketches, and unfinished comics featuring his Hansel and Gretel-like characters Pim and Francie, drawn over a period of more than ten years. According to Columbia, the book's fragmentary vignettes "were all attempts [to] make a full-fledged comic and do things right - to put out comics regularly. But it just never really happened that way for me."
Pim & Francie was enthusiastically received in the comics press. It was named one of the best graphic novels of the year by The Village Voice and the Austin American-Statesman and garnered positive reviews in other venues including Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and The A.V. Club. It also earned Columbia two Ignatz Award nominations, for Outstanding Artist and Outstanding Graphic Novel.