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Optic Nerve




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Optic Nerve #12 Adrian Tomine Drawn and Quarterly Optic Nerve $5.95
($5.95 list)
Opticnerve12
Read more and comment... 		The first half of this issue, consisting of "A Brief History of the Art Form Known as 'Hortisculpture'", shows Mr. Tomine following in the footsteps of his mentor and role model, one Daniel Clowes, in playfully and inventively incorporating the newspaper comic strip format in to that of the comic book.  Tomine has taken the formal replication a bit further, however.  Here we have a story artfully divided into four-panel, black and white "dailies" and full-color, full-page "Sundays."  Titled "Hortisculpture," the strip "runs" one Sunday strip shy of five full "weeks." The second story, Amber Sweet, is classic Tomine, but... in full color!  The issue closes out with two pages of meta-comics, with Tomine ironically inserting himself into the work to provide behind-the-scenes commentary on its creation, his attachment to the "floppy" form of comics (aka comic books), and his feelings of hope, pride, frustration and despair about the very comic you're holding in your hands. 
Optic Nerve #11 Drawn and Quarterly Optic Nerve $3.55
($3.95 list)
Optic_11
Read more and comment... 		This issue completes the 3-issue story arc begun in #9 and scheduled to be collected in book form this fall.
Summer Blonde Adrian Tomine Drawn and Quarterly Optic Nerve $17.77
($19.95 list)
9781896597492
Read more and comment... 		This is the hardcover edition.  Collects Optic Nerve 5 - 8.  Each issue is a stand alone story.  Tomine's best collection?  Maybe...
The Adrian Tomine Scrapbook: Uncollected Work: 1990 - 2004 Adrian Tomine Drawn and Quarterly Optic Nerve $21.25
($24.95 list)
Tominescrap
Read more and comment... 		The title pretty much say it all.  This is an atttractive oversize softcover edition with rounded corners that charts Tomine's maturation as an artist and gives us a chance to to peek at his sketchbooks and check out his non-comics illustration work.  There is, of course, plenty of comics work, too.  A must have for any serious Tomine fan, and worth at least a look for everyone else.
Shortcomings Adrian Tomine Drawn and Quarterly Optic Nerve $16.95
($19.95 list)
Shortcomingssm
Read more and comment... 		At last, Mr. Tomine's first actual graphic novel is here.  This fine Drawn & Quarterly hardcover edition articulates an angst-ridden Asian-American assimilation in 108 finely rendered pages collecting Optic Nerve #9 - #11.  This work captures the lives of 20-somethings navigating their way towards a place in the scheme of things that they can call their own.  Tomine is that rare creator with perfect pitch and it's uncanny how he always manages to get it... just right.  This time out, a romance unwinds, a friendship blooms and fades, and life goes on.