The Julys

A poetic, pastoral look at aging through both the eyes of a father and his young son.

A father worries his son is growing up too fast and losing his innocence as they bike and hike and swim and spend the day in nature. As they move from place to place, they tell stories, specifically stories of The Julys, mythical creatures who rise from the still depths of the local swimming holes on the first day of July and disappear on the last. 

These timid harmless creatures swarm and chatter and slowly become aware of where they are and where they’re headed as they march across beaches and amble through fields and stumble across streams. Is there a destination? Does the child understand the mortality and fallibility of his father? Does the father understand the unlimited possible futures of his son? The Julys is a meditation on how we grow and learn and live.

Nylso is one of the great 90s independent creators of the French New Wave of Comics. Devoted to a pastoral and heavily crosshatched style depicting the overwhelming qualities of nature and humankind’s insignificance in comparison, Nylso drifts from field to forest to shoreline and back again.

Translated by Montana Kane.