Dear Julia,
Published by Top Shelf Productions, 2000.
Originally published by Black Eye Press in Montreal as a four-part serial in 1995-97. Dear Julia, (the comma is part of the title) is the story of Boyd Soloman and his terrifying obsession with flying. In fact, when the story opens, Boyd is perched on the ledge of his apartment, eight stories above the street.
The entire story is told through a letter that Boyd is writing to someone named Julia, and involves a vacation in Arizona, a collection of birds, horrible auto accidents, a strange little man named Leo, talking pigeons, and a dead guy in the desert.
Dear Julia, was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2001, which is the comics equivalent of, I don’t know, an Oscar I guess, for Best Graphic Novel (Reprint).
The book has twice been adapted as a short film. The first was by a film student at RISD in 2001, and the second was by a filmmaker in Belgium in 2003. They are wonderful and each different in interesting ways from the other. The Belgian version is presented here:
Covers of the original four-part series published by Black Eye Press, Montreal, from 1995-1998.