This fall, Graphic Universe™, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, will publish Night and Danaby cartoonist Anya Davidson, a graphic novel about making art and growing up when it feels like the world is on fire. The creative coming-of-age story for the climate-change generation will arrive in stores on September 12.
Dana Drucker fights boredom in her Florida beach town by crafting special-effects makeup—the more gruesome, the better. But when a messy prank with Dana’s best friend Lily gets the wrong kind of attention, the girls have two choices: find a new creative outlet or leave high school without graduating. To save their shot at diplomas, Dana and Lily join a community college film class. It gives Dana a chance to keep practicing her monster makeup, as she and Lily start work on a horror movie inspired by local ocean warming. And a search for filming locations puts Dana in the path of Daphne Ocean, an activist and self-proclaimed water witch—the perfect kind of inspiring outsider.
But when filming starts, Dana finds herself growing apart from Lily, who doesn’t seem to need her closest friend much anymore. Soon, tempers are flaring, and Dana’s pushing away old friends and her new mentor. But as everything starts going up in flames, Dana also begins to forge her voice.
“I caught the horror bug at the same time, in early adolescence, as I began to develop a sense of political awareness, and those interests of mine are inextricably linked,” said creator Anya Davidson. “With Night and Dana, I knew I wanted to tell a coming-of-age story about horror-obsessed teens, but I also knew I wanted to depict activists organizing.”
“Anya Davidson’s Night and Dana is a love letter to self-proclaimed weirdos of all kinds, but especially those obsessed with horror, the environment, or environmental horrors,” said Sean Tulien, Editorial Director of Graphic Universe. “It’s a deeply unique and deeply relatable coming-of-age tale about friendship and finding your voice.”
Night and Dana will be available in stores on September 12, 2023.
About the Creator
Anya Davidson is a cartoonist, printmaker and musician living in Chicago. Her debut book, School Spirits, was excerpted in Best American Comics 2015, edited by Jonathan Lethem and Bill Kartalopoulos. Her sophomore graphic novel, Band for Life, (2016, Fantagraphics books) based on her experiences fronting a noise-rock band, was nominated for an Ignatz award in the Outstanding Graphic Novel category. Her comics journalism has been published in the Chicago Reader, Newcity Magazine and The Nib, and she writes comics criticism for The Comics Journal. Davidson is a professor in the Painting and Drawing department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About the Publisher
Graphic Universe™, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, creates high-interest and nonfiction titles through supreme graphic novel artwork and story lines created by industry veterans and up-and-coming talents.