The Next Day

Book excerpt: The Next Day is a ground-breaking graphic novel, constructed from interviews with survivors of near-fatal suicide attempts. In this poetic and profound philosophical exploration, illustrated by acclaimed small-press legend John Porcellino ("A master at miniature poignance," Entertainment Weekly), four diverse participants each answer the same key questions about life, the decision to end it, and what comes after...The Next Day is being simultaneously developed and released as a separate interactive animated on-line experience, co-produced by the prestigious National Film Board of Canada (recipient of 70 Academy Award nominations). It is an exciting new hybrid of documentary film, animation, comic book and interactive storytelling to release in May 2011.Praise for John Porcellino:"Porcellino creates some of the most thoughtful, intelligent, sympathetic & beautiful comix in America" (TIME)"A master at miniature poignance." (Entertainment Weekly)Praise for The Next Day:"The Next Day project doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties required to face and overcome to get to those years; instead, it shows that others -- who may be very much like you -- have managed to get there." (School Library Journal's Adult Books 4 Teens blog)"As a rule, Open Book doesn't post reviews or recommendations, but I am going to break that rule. If you are someone who is prone to moodiness, if you sometimes feel like life has kicked your ass so hard there's no possible way you could ever recuperate, if you've ever felt so profoundly alone that, even for a moment, you questioned your own tangible existence -- in other words, if you're a human being -- I urge you to buy a copy of The Next Day. It is a sublimely beautiful, haunting and viscerally moving book." (Open Book Toronto)"The Next Day is intimate and accessible; it is compassionate, but unsentimental: the authors wisely don't try to suggest that everything will somehow be better in the morning. Most importantly, it may help those afflicted by mental illness realize they're not alone." (Quill and Quire)