NEWS

Internationally renowned publisher Humanoids announced today a brand new graphic novel THROUGH CLOUDS OF SMOKE: FREUD’S FINAL DAYS, from writer and illustrator Suzanne Leclair, co-writer William Roy and translated by Nanette McGuinness, in which an aging Sigmund Freud reflects upon the torments of age, the lung cancer he suffers due to his cigar addiction, and the rise of Nazism. Available in stores December 2023.

In 1923, Sigmund Freud, 67 years old and an inveterate cigar smoker, discovers that he has mouth cancer, a truth long hidden from him by doctors.

Despite his diagnosis, Freud survived 15 more years, convinced the cigars that were slowly destroying him increased his productivity and gave him control over himself. At the same time, a different sort of cancer was consuming Europe. In 1933, Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, annexing Freud's home country of Austria five years later.

His books burning upon fascist pyres and his peers concerned for his life, Freud had no choice but to leave Vienna for London, his final home.

With accuracy and sobriety, Suzanne Leclair and William Roy reveal a raw and nuanced portrait of the father of psychoanalysis in his last days. The controversial figure is shown in all his contradictions and weakness, a reflection of our own fears and trials in facing age and death. 

Suzanne Leclair lives and works in Montreal as a psychiatrist affiliated with the University of Montreal who trained in the Department of Fine Arts at Concordia University in Montreal in the early 1980s and worked as a painter for many years.In 2016, she joined a working and research group on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAD) at the university hospital where she practices, following the introduction of Quebec and Canadian laws governing this practice.

William Roy, a passionate, self-taught artist, began his creative career as an editor and a director of documentaries. In 2014, he published his first graphic novel, De Père en FIV (La Boîte à Bulles), an autobiographical account of his experiences with IVF. He then followed up with Hedy Lamarr: An Incredible Life, illustrated by Sylvain Dorange, a project he had been inspired to write for a very long time. William Roy currently resides in Paris.

THROUGH CLOUDS OF SMOKE: FREUD’S FINAL DAYS will be available in bookstores (bookshop.org) and comic shops (comicshoplocator.com) everywhere in December 2023. Digital copies can be purchased from comiXology and other digital platforms.