Pastimes by Pascal Girard: A Father’s Honest Life

I recently discovered Pastimes by Montreal cartoonist Pascal Girard at my local library, and it completely stopped me in my tracks. I connected with his minimalist, wobbly art almost immediately, but what really stayed with me was how much I related to the stories themselves. As a father, I kept seeing pieces of my own life reflected in the quiet, in-between moments Girard captures so perfectly. The awkward pauses, low-level self-doubt, and subtle humor that slip into everyday family routines all felt familiar. Girard doesn’t exaggerate these moments or turn them into something bigger than they are. That honesty drew me in and made me want to learn more about the artist behind the work.

Originally serialized on Instagram in French, Pastimes was later collected by Pow Pow Press and translated into English by Aleshia Jensen, published in November 2025. The book’s four-panel strips depict Girard’s life as a father, part-time social worker, and cartoonist, capturing small, awkward, yet tender moments that feel deeply personal. For me, reading Pastimes was like peeking into someone else’s life and realizing how closely it mirrors my own, funny, uncomfortable, and quietly heartbreaking all at once.

Pascal Girard, born in 1981 in Jonquière, Quebec, is a leading figure in the Quebec indie comics scene and a practicing social worker. His work blends a relaxed, minimalist graphic style with profound emotional depth, transforming ordinary, personal experiences into stories that feel universal. His breakthrough book, Nicolas, is a restrained meditation on grief following the death of his younger brother, while titles like Petty Theft and Reunion explore the absurdity and vulnerability of everyday life, blending slapstick comedy with reflections on social anxiety and male insecurity. In recent works such as Pastimes and Rebecca & Lucie in the Case of the Missing Neighbor, Girard blurs autobiography and fiction, using visual techniques like color shifts to communicate emotional states.

What makes Girard’s work so compelling is his signature shaky line work. Those slightly unsteady lines are deliberate, reflecting the emotional vulnerability of his characters and giving each strip what I call squirm humor, the visual equivalent of shifting in your chair during an awkward conversation. His figures often appear thin and fragile, as if they could vanish if you look too closely, making every scene feel intimate and exposed. Minimalist layouts and generous negative space amplify that effect, drawing attention to nervous gestures, subtle hesitation, and the tiny physical jitters that make the characters feel alive. This balance between adult emotional complexity and a childlike, innocent visual language is where Girard’s vulnerability and humor come from, making Pastimes a quietly powerful, relatable, and unforgettable comic experience.

I was completely drawn to Pascal Girard’s wry and wonderful take on everyday life, and reading Pastimes felt like catching glimpses of my own life reflected at me. The diary comics capture those cringe-inducing, awkward moments we all know too well, from struggling to keep up at a dog park to standing stiffly in a cat cafe, and I kept laughing at how often I could picture myself in Girard’s shoes. As a parent, I felt an even deeper connection in his interactions with his young daughter, Lucie, whose thoughtful, sometimes startlingly profound questions about life and death are both funny and moving, hitting closer to home than I expected.

His loose, expressive pen sketches give the Pastimes a raw, immediate feeling that makes the scenes feel lived-in and real. You can almost sense the nervous energy and subtle hesitation in each panel, as if the characters were existing right in front of you. While some might find the short four-panel format less ambitious than his longer books like Petty Theft or Reunion, for me, that simplicity is part of the charm. The honesty and quiet humor of Pastimes make it a tenderly funny, surprisingly poignant look at the fleeting, awkward moments that shape everyday life. Sometimes it is these small, seemingly mundane moments that capture life more honestly than anything grand.