Julio's Day

graphic fiction - follows Julio (and family) from his birth to his death 100 years later (1900-2000). Very readable, with natural (never forced) context provided to portray characters at different ages, and various events over the years. Hernandez is certainly as skilled and accomplished as the prologue/intro says he is. Rated M -- TW/CW: male nudity (and sex), child sexual abuse, violent illness, traumatized/severely wounded WWI veteran.

I am not familiar with Gilbert Hernandez other than this book, Julio's Day. I've heard his work is inventive, but based on what I see here this can't be anything like his strongest effort. Julio's Day is much too disjointed. If Hernandez intended the book's uneven flow to be a storytelling aesthetic, then he missed the mark because the whole thing comes across as amateurish.

I wanted to give this a higher rating, but I just didn't enjoy it at all. There was a lot of disturbing imagery (and I'm left wondering why the author made up a fictional disease when this book is otherwise realistic and historically accurate). I didn't connect with any of the characters, and there was so much left unsaid...which is certainly intentional but it didn't work for me.

Many people loved this, so don't discount it based on my review alone.

Not his best work but still better than 90% of the stuff out there. A very interesting format a life of 100 years in 100 pages.

Een strip over het leven van één man in precies honderd bladzijden van geboorte tot aan zijn dood. Als lezer ben je een stille getuigen van de emoties die Julio zijn leven lang inslikt, iets dat alleen tussen de regels of beter gezegd de tekeningen door waar te nemen zijn. En juist het niet expliciete maakt dat het zo raakt. Een strip om niet onder woorden te willen brengen maar alleen om te ervaren. Meer wil ik er niet over zeggen. :-)