Louis (comics)

Louis is a graphic novel series created by metaphrog, the Franco-Scottish duo Sandra Marrs and John Chalmers.

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".

Louis - Red Letter Day was published on Serializer.net. 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

 * Louis - Red Letter Day (2000) ISBN 0-9534932-5-3
 * Louis - Lying to Clive (2001) ISBN 0-9534932-7-X
 * Louis - The Clown's Last Words (2002) ISBN 0-9534932-9-6
 * Louis - Dreams Never Die (2004) ISBN 0-9545984-0-7
 * Louis - Night Salad (2010) ISBN 978-0-9545984-1-9
 * Louis - Red Letter Day New Edition (2011) ISBN 97809545984-2-6

Awards and recognition
Louis is a multiple Eisner Award and Ignatz Award nominee. Louis - Red Letter Day: Eisner Award nominations for "Best Title for a Younger Audience" and "Best Graphic Album - New, 2000 Ignatz Award nomination, "Promising New Talent", 2001 Louis - Night Salad Eisner Award nomination for "Best Coloring", 2011 Highly Commended for the Scottish Children's Book Awards, 2011 Leeds Graphic Novel Awards shortlist, 2011 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens longlist, 2011