Publications
Books, Magazines, Comics, Zines and more
Adrian Tomine - 32 Stories Box Set
Adrian Tomine - Killing and Dying
Hardcover, 128 pages, Measures 6.7 x 9.7"
Killing and Dying is a stunning showcase of the possibilities of the graphic novel medium and a wry exploration of loss, creative ambition, identity, and family dynamics. With this work, Adrian Tomine (Shortcomings, Scenes from an Impending Marriage) reaffirms his place not only as one of the most significant creators of contemporary comics but as one of the great voices of modern American literature. His gift for capturing emotion and intellect resonates here: the weight of love and its absence, the pride and disappointment of family, the anxiety and hopefulness of being alive in the twenty-first century.
"Amber Sweet" shows the disastrous impact of mistaken identity in a hyper-connected world; "A Brief History of the Art Form Known as Hortisculpture" details the invention and destruction of a vital new art form in short comic strips; "Translated, from the Japanese" is a lush, full-color display of storytelling through still images; the title story, "Killing and Dying", centers on parenthood, mortality, and stand-up comedy. In six interconnected, darkly funny stories, Tomine forms a quietly moving portrait of contemporary life.
Tomine is a master of the small gesture, equally deft at signaling emotion via a subtle change of expression or writ large across landscapes illustrated in full color. Killing and Dying is a fraught, realist masterpiece.
Adrian Tomine - New York Sketches 2004
Hardcover, 128 pages, Measures 6.7 x 9.7"
Dan Clowes meets Walker Evans in this collection of subway and street portraits by Adrian Tomine, whose work readers will recognize from Time, Rolling Stone, Dave Eggersis Best American Nonrequired Reading and the cover of The New Yorker. New York Sketches features 15 full-color reproductions of the beautiful ink-and-watercolor drawings that Tomine began after moving from California to the city.
Each shows his unparalleled eye for detail: a police officer scrutinizes a stylish young mother; a girl remains content but completely motionless through four subway stops; a disgruntled worker kicks a chair while he sweeps. This remarkable portfolio is printed on finely textured 130-lb. Cougar paper, accordion folded so that images can be detached for framing or displayed upright together. It is the only full-color project featuring new art from Adrian Tomine, one of the most respected and perhaps the most widely visible alternative cartoonists of our time.
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve - Summer Blonde
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve: Sleepwalk and Other Stories
Adrian Tomine - Shortcomings (Softcover)
Adrian Tomine - The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist
A COMEDIC MEMOIR ABOUT FANDOM, FAME, AND OTHER EMBARRASSMENTS FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF KILLING AND DYING
What happens when a childhood hobby grows into a lifelong career? The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, Adrian Tomine's funniest and most revealing foray into autobiography, offers an array of unexpected answers. When a sudden medical incident lands Tomine in the emergency room, he begins to question if it was really all worthwhile: despite the accolades and opportunities of a seemingly charmed career, it's the gaffes, humiliations, slights, and insults he's experienced (or caused) within the industry that loom largest in his memory.
Tomine illustrates the amusing absurdities of how we choose to spend our time, all the while mining his conflicted relationship with comics and comics culture. But in between chaotic book tours, disastrous interviews, and cringe-inducing interactions with other artists, life happens: Tomine fumbles his way into marriage, parenthood, and an indisputably fulfilling existence. A richer emotional story emerges as his memories are delineated in excruciatingly hilarious detail.
In a bold stylistic departure from his award-winning Killing and Dying, Tomine distills his art to the loose, lively essentials of cartooning, each pen stroke economically imbued with human depth. Designed as a sketchbook complete with place-holder ribbon and an elastic band, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist shows an acclaimed artist at the peak of his career.
Baron Yoshimoto - The Troublemakers
A collection of some of the best stories by Baron Yoshimoto, one of the Japanese manga artists who helped develop the graphic novel form in the 1960s and 1970s by targeting an older audience with scintillating and exquisitely drawn stories about class, gender, ethnicity, and race. With an essay by noted manga historian and translator Ryan Holmberg. The stories included are “Eriko’s Happiness”, “High School Brawler’s Ditty”, “Insect”, “The Gambling Stripper”, “Nostalgia”, and “The Girl and the Black Soldier”.
Baron Yoshimoto grew up in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, and helped build the graphic novel boom in the 1960s and 1970s. When he was at the height of his popularity, he concluded all of his serializations and suddenly left for the United States. In 1985, he returned to Japan and began to produce paintings, launching a new and innovative style. He has received critical praise for his painted works, where he uses the name Ryu Manji.
Website: baron-yoshimoto.jp/
Twitter: @baronyoshimoto
The Troublemakers is translated from the original Japanese by Ryan Holmberg, an art and comics historian whose many translations include Yuichi Yokoyama's World Map Room, Osamu Tezuka's Mysterious Underground Men, and Tsuge Tadao's Trash Market.
More writing by Ryan Holmberg: tcj.com/author/ryan-holmberg/
248 black & white pages with some color, 5.75x8.25 inches (14.6x20.9 cm), softcover graphic novel
Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6
Familiar Face Michael Deforge
N A THOROUGHLY MODERNIZED, CONSTANTLY UPDATING SOCIETY, WHERE CAN TRUE CONNECTION BE FOUND?
The bodies of citizens and the infrastructure surrounding them is constantly updating. People can’t recognize themselves in old pictures, and they wake up in apartments of completely different sizes and shapes. Commuter routes radically differ day to day. The citizens struggle with adaptability as updates happen too quickly, and the changes are far too radical to be intuitive. There is no way to resist—the updates are enacted by a nameless, faceless force.
Familiar Face’s narrator works in the government’s department of complaints, reading through citizens’ reports of the issues they’ve had with the system updates. The job isn’t to fix anything, but rather to be the sole human sounding board, a comfort in a system so decidedly impersonal. These complaints aren’t mere bug reports—they can be anything: existential, petty, just plain heartbreaking.
Michael DeForge’s ability to find the humanity and emotional truth within the outlandish bureaucracy of everyday life is unparalleled. The signatures of DeForge’s work - a vibrant color palette, surreal designs, and self-aware sense of humor - enliven an often-bleak technocratic future. Familiar Face is a masterful and deeply funny exploration of how we define our sense of self, and how we cope when so much of life is out of our control.
Hairdos of Defiance by Ed Templeton
Hardcover, 6.75 x 9 inches, 68 pages. Edition of 1500
Hairdos of Defiance is a look into a microcosm of a fringe world, one where individuals engage in the act of retreat or refusal as a generative form of identity-making. Eschewing perfection for style, progenitors of the punk scene adopted the radical alterations of their bodies to signify their displeasure. Offensively deviant, the Mohawk evolved as a style dependent on social context and determined by the historical moment; purposely assumed, it is both a mask and an act of masking.
Jeffrey Brown - Star Wars: Darth Vader and Friends
Jeffrey Brown - Star Wars: Darth Vader and Son
Junji Ito - Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection
416 pages, 8.25 x 8.25 inches. Hardcover Graphic Novel Collection.
A must have for horror lovers and manga fans, this collection of 13 chilling, nightmare-inducing tales by Junji Ito will entice any reader.
Junji Ito - Twisted Visions: The Art of Junji Ito
150 black and white and colored pages, 8.25 x 11.75 inches. Hardcover Art Book.
Enter the world of Junji Ito’s art––an abyss of horror and sublime beauty.
A first-ever collection of Junji Ito’s artworks, featuring over 130 images from his bestselling manga titles along with rare works.
Junji Ito - Uzumaki: 3-in-1 Deluxe Edition
648 pages, 5.75 x 8.25 inches. Hardcover Graphic Novel.
A masterpiece of horror manga, now available in a deluxe hardcover edition!
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but a pattern: UZUMAKI, the spiral—the hypnotic secret shape of the world. The bizarre masterpiece horror manga is now available all in a single volume. Fall into a whirlpool of terror!