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Drawn & Quarterly to Collect Michael DeForge's 'Leaving Richard's Valley' Next Year

Published Mon, 28 May 2018 14:00:13 -0500

Leaving Richard's Valley is a near-daily webcomic by Michael DeForge. It centers on a certain place, owned by a certain Richard, from which the inhabitants are somehow restricted from leaving — if they'd ever want to. Until they are forced to.

Drawn & Quarterly has released the news that it will be publishing a collection of the comic book in March next year in a rather sizeable 480-page collection.

When a group of outcasts have to leave the valley, how will they survive the toxicity of the big city?

Richard is a benevolent but tough leader. He oversees everything that happens in the valley, and everyone loves him for it. When Lyle the Raccoon becomes sick, his friends―Omar the Spider, Neville the Dog, and Ellie Squirrel―take matters into their own hands, breaking Richard's strict rules. Caroline Frog rats them out to Richard and they are immediately exiled from the only world they've ever known.

Michael DeForge's Leaving Richard's Valley expands from a bizarre hero's quest into something more. As this ragtag group makes their way out of the valley, and then out of the park and into the big city, we see them coming to terms with different kinds of community: noise-rockers, gentrification protesters, squatters, and more. DeForge is idiosyncratically funny but also deeply insightful about community, cults of personality, and the condo-ization of cities. These eye-catching and sometimes absurd comics coalesce into a book that questions who our cities are for and how we make community in a capitalist society.

The comic can continue to be read for free almost every day right here on Instagram.