Comics

Paperback, 10" x 6.8", 24 pages.

The critically acclaimed graphic comic Optic Nerve from artist Adrian Tomine. Three stories are featured here: in “Six Day Cold” (11 pages), a man spends a tense, awkward evening with his ex-girlfriend after she comes over to his apartment to help nurse his sickness; “Fourth of July” (7 pages) recounts the story of a young boy who isolates himself as his parents are being separated; in “Hazel Eyes” (6 pages), a young woman tries to recreate her life after she realizes she has nothing in common with her friends.

Paperback, 10" x 6.8", 25 pages.

The critically acclaimed graphic comic Optic Nerve from artist Adrian Tomine. Adrian Tomine’s first full-length story is featured here. In “Alter Ago” (25 pages), a successful young writer becomes obsessed with finding the girl he had a crush on in high school; things become more complicated when he has to hide his strange obsession from his current girlfriend.

Paperback, 10" x 6.8", 25pp

The critically acclaimed graphic comic Optic Nerve from artist Adrian Tomine. With eight bonus pages, this extra-long issue features “Hawaiian Getaway”, a single story comprised of thirteen chapters. Inventive in structure, the story details the events in a woman’s life as circumstances turn her previously complacent existence upside-down, and her behavior grows more eccentric and erratic.

Paperback, 10" x 6.8", 25pp

The critically acclaimed graphic comic Optic Nerve from artist Adrian Tomine. At the center of the story is Nessa, a beautiful young woman who finds herself besieged by the attention of three obsessive, lustful men. This complex “misanthropic soap opera” is told without narration, cutting back and forth between several concurrent plots that ultimately converge in a compelling conclusion.

Paperback, 10" x 7", 25pp

The critically acclaimed graphic comic Optic Nerve from artist Adrian Tomine. After a lengthy period of writing and planning, Tomine returns with his longest, most ambitious work to date. With a projected length of over one hundred pages, this fictional story examines the troubled sex-life of a confused, obsessive, Japanese-American male in his late twenties, and his cross-country search for the perfect girl. This issue is the first of three chapters.

Paperback, 10" x 7", 32pp

In this long-awaited conclusion to Adrian Tomine's three-part epic, the story leaps across the country, taking place entirely in New York. All of protagonist Ben Tanaka's worst (and most amusing) traits are brought to the fore as his obsessive quest reaches a fever pitch. His best friend, Alice Kim, finds herself at an unexpected crossroads in her life, forcing her to make several life-altering decisions. But whatever happened to Ben's girlfriend, Miko Hayashi? That and many other answers are revealed as our protagonists walk and talk their way through the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan, all delineated in Tomine's evocatively pristine style.

Softcover, 40 pages, measures 10 x 6.8 inches.

Publisher Drawn & Quarterly explains, "Acclaimed cartoonist Adrian Tomine (New York Drawings, Shortcomings) returns with a dazzling new issue of his two-decade-long comic book series! Optic Nerve #13 features three complete stories, each distinct in their tone and visual style. "Go Owls" is a dark comedy about 12-step programs, drug dealing, and minor league baseball. "Translated, from the Japanese," illustrates the diary of a young Japanese mother, caught between two countries and hovering on the precipice of divorce. "Winter, 2012" is an autobiographical glimpse into Tomine's home life and his ongoing struggles with the modern world. Throughout Optic Nerve #13, Tomine channels contemporary zeitgeist and vernacular to produce flawlessly designed, compellingly readable stories."

Softcover, 40 pages, measures 10 x 6.8 inches.

Publisher Drawn & Quarterly explains, "Optic Nerve 14 brings Adrian Tomine’s multifaceted, expressive cartooning to a new peak with two stories and a bonus autobiographical strip. “Killing and Dying” is about a father’s struggles to be supportive: it centers on parenthood, mortality, and stand-up comedy. “Intruders” depicts a man obsessively trying to find his way back to a former life by revisiting places he once knew. Optic Nerve 14 will appear on the twentieth anniversary of Tomine’s beloved comic book series, in whose pages the landmark graphic novel Shortcomings was first published. Each story in Optic Nerve 14 reveals new dimensions to Tomine’s unique visual sensibility and complex, character-driven stories."

Softcover, 9.25" x 6.5", 108pp, Black & White

Ben Tanaka has problems. In addition to being rampantly critical, sarcastic, and insensitive, his longåÐterm relationship is awash in turmoil. His girlfriend, Miko Hayashi, suspects that Ben has a wandering eye, and more to the point, it's wandering in the direction of white women. This accusation (and its various implications) becomes the subject of heated, spiralling debate, setting in motion a story that pits California against New York, devotion against desire, and trust against truth.

By confusing their personal problems with political ones, Ben and Miko are strangely alone together and oddly alike, even as they fly apart. Being human, all too human, they fail to see that what unites them is their shared hypocrisies, their double standards. This gray zone between the personal and the political is a minefield that Tomine navigates boldly and nimbly. The charged, volatile dialogues that result are unlike anything in Tomine's previous work or, for that matter, comics in general. But Shortcomings is no mere polemic. Any issues that are raised stand on equal footing with expertly-crafted plot turns, subtle characterization, and irreverent humor, all drawn in Tomine's heart-breakingly evocative style. What Tomine ultimately offers is more provocation than pronouncement--a brutal, funny, and insightful reflection of human shortcomings.

Shortcomings was serialized in Tomine's iconic comic book series Optic Nerve (issues #9-11) and was excerpted in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13.

Cover varies in color.