| Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days | |
|---|---|
| Date | 2009 |
| Main characters | Pim & Francie |
| Page count | 240 pages |
| Publisher | Fantagraphics |
| Creative team | |
| Creator | Al Columbia |
| Editor | Eric Reynolds |
Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days is a 2009 book by Al Columbia. Subtitled "Artifacts and Bone Fragments", it is a scrapbook-like assemblage of illustrations, paintings, sketches, and unfinished comics featuring his Hansel and Gretel-like characters Pim and Francie, drawn over a period of more than ten years. According to Columbia, the book's fragmentary vignettes "were all attempts [to] make a full-fledged comic and do things right - to put out comics regularly. But it just never really happened that way for me."
Pim & Francie was enthusiastically received in the comics press. It was named one of the best graphic novels of the year by The Village Voice and the Austin American-Statesman and garnered positive reviews in other venues including Publishers Weekly,Booklist, and The A.V. Club. It also earned Columbia two Ignatz Award nominations, for Outstanding Artist and Outstanding Graphic Novel.