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Products by Adrian Tomine
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Shortcomings (PB)
Adrian Tomine
April 2009
"Tomine's genius is to strip his medium of every possible type of grandiosity or indulgence, and the result is that life itself floods in. His mise-en-scene rivals Eric Rohmer's in its gentle precision, and his mastery of narrative time suggests Alice Munro. Shortcomings, as near as he'd get to a grand statement, is as deceptively relaxed and perfect as a comic book gets." --Jonathan Lethem
"One of the most masterful cartoonists of his generation, 32-year-old Adrian Tomine's [Shortcomings] centers on Asian-American protagonist Ben Tanaka, a lonely, socially constricted man, longing to make a connection and spinning in the purgatory between youth and adulthood... equal parts poignant, hilarious, and sad." --The Village Voice
Ben Tanaka has problems. In addition to being rampantly critical, sarcastic, and insensitive, his long–term 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.
Click here to enter the Shortcomings mini-site!
Paperback, 112 pages, 6.5 x 9.25 inches, b/w.
ISBN: 9781897299753
$14.95 US / $18.95 CDN
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32 Stories: Special Edition Box Set
Adrian Tomine
April 2009
In 1991, Adrian Tomine self-published the first issue of Optic Nerve. Consisting of three sheets of paper, and with a print run of twenty-five, it was a less-than-auspicious, largely unnoticed debut. In the following three years though, Optic Nerve developed at a startlingly rapid pace: the artwork and writing evolved with each story, production quality improved, page counts increased, and by issue seven sales had reached 6,000. In 1994, Drawn & Quarterly took over the publishing duties on Optic Nerve, and the original seven stories were sold out and left out of print. 32 Stories presents those rare, early editions.
ISBN: 9781897299760
$19.95 US / $24.95 CDN
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Drawn & Quarterly 20th Anniversary TV on the Radio Poster
Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine created this poster to celebrate D+Q's 20th! hand silk screened poster+adrian+TV on the Radio= act now, as this is limited edition!
ISBN: DNQ906010129
$30.00 US / $35.00 CDN
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Sleepwalk and Other Stories
Adrian Tomine
Collecting the first four issues of Adrian Tomine's acclaimed comic series optic nerve, this book offers sixteen concise, haunting tales of modern life. The characters here appear to be well-adjusted on the surface, but Tomine takes us deeper into their lives, subtly examining their struggle to connect with friends and lovers.
“Tomine is a master of pseudorealistic stories in the tradition of raymond carver. This understated, black-and-white collection should satisfy fiction aficionados in any medium.”— Library Journal
Brilliant... we know we’re in the hands of a major young comics artist—visually gripping and emotionally challenging." — Kirkus Reviews
NEW FOURTH PRINTING (2007)!
ISBN: 9781896597126
$17.95 US / $17.95 CDN
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Optic Nerve #5
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. 24 pages. First Printing: February 1998
ISBN: 9781894937351
$2.95 US / $2.95 CDN
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Optic Nerve #6
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. 32 pages. First Printing: February 1999. Second Printing: October 2001
ISBN: 9781894937368
$2.95 US / $2.95 CDN
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Optic Nerve #4
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. 24 pages. First Printing: April 1997. Second Printing: October 2001.
ISBN: 9781894937344
$2.95 US / $2.95 CDN
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Optic Nerve #3
Adrian Tomine
"Dylan & Donovan" (11 pages), the first of four stories, recounts the difficult adolescence of two twin sisters and their life with an aging hippie father; in "Supermarket" (6 pages), a blind man attempts to befriend a young woman at the checkout counter; "Hostage Situation" (3 pages) is an account of a miserable bus ride with two unruly passengers; in "Unfaded" (3 pages), a young man ponders a life gone by after his grandfather is admitted to a senior's home. 24 pages. First Printing: August 1996. Second Printing: October 2001
ISBN: 9781894937337
$2.95 US / $2.95 CDN
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Optic Nerve #2
Adrian Tomine
Tomine offers four stories in this second issue: A lonely woman tries to find the man leaving cryptic messages for her in the Personals section of the newspaper in "The Connecting Thread" (4 pages); in "Summer Job" (15 pages), a teenager reluctantly applies for a job at a photocopy shop and then proceeds to waste the following two months; "Pink Frosting" (2 pages) provides a vivid and unsettling glimpse at the suggestion of violence murmuring beneath the surface during a traffic altercation; in "Layover" (4 pages), a missed flight forces a man to ponder his strained relationships with his lover and friends as he discreetly walks through his neighborhood waiting, afraid to announce to anyone that he has not left yet. 24 pages. First Printing: November 1995; Second Printing: February 1997. Third Printing: October 2001.
ISBN: 9781894937320
$2.95 US / $2.95 CDN
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Optic Nerve #11
Adrian Tomine
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.
ISBN: 9781897299227
$3.95 US / $3.95 CDN
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Optic Nerve #7
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. First Printing: July 2000.
ISBN: 9781894937375
$2.95 US / $2.95 CDN
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Optic Nerve #8
Adrian Tomine
In this issue Tomine tells the story of two outcast teenagers and of the tense undercurrents that exist between them and the more popular group of students at school. This is the story that Dave Eggers chose to be included in the book "The Best American Non-Required Reading 2002" (Houghton Mifflin).
ISBN: 9781894937382
$3.50 US / $3.50 CDN
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Optic Nerve #10
Adrian Tomine
This new issue of Optic Nerve, the second of a three part series, begins with our protagonist Ben Tanaka diving head-first into the world of dating, only days after his unwitting, long-term girlfriend has left for an internship in New York. We follow his awkward and often humiliating attempts at connecting with several young women, all of whom happen to have blonde hair and blue eyes. We also watch the life of Ben's best friend, Alice Kim, take several dramatic turns for the worse. The issue closes with another cliffhanger of sorts, setting the stage for a major shift in Ben's life and the story itself. This is Tomine's most ambitious work to date: funny, compelling, and compulsively readable.
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Optic Nerve #9
Adrian Tomine
Optic Nerve #8 was selected for inclusion in the literary anthology "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002" and Optic Nerve #9 will be excerpted in an upcoming issue of McSweeney's, edited by Chris Ware.
After a lengthy period of writing and planning, Tomine returns with his longest, most ambitious work to date. With a projected length of over 100 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.
ISBN: 9781894937641
$3.95 US / $3.95 CDN
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Optic Nerve #1
Adrian Tomine
"Great art and a soft, smooth page that's slick to the touch...reading Optic Nerve is like peeking into someone's diary or flipping through your favorite photo album." — New York Daily News
After self-publishing seven mini comics as a teenager, Optic Nerve became a regular comic book series when Adrian Tomine was only 20. His work developed steadily over the years, from the rough, sketchy drawings of his early mini-comics to the stark, crisp graphic approach of his D&Q series. Although his work is no longer strictly autobiographical, his contemporary stories are still deeply personal. Tomine creates a new cast of characters for each story, and he has become a master of penetrating their fragile exteriors.
This first D+Q issue features five stories: "Sleepwalk" (11 pages), an account of a young man's attempts to cling to an old, fading relationship; "Echo Avenue" (5 pages), where voyeurism is the pastime of choice as a couple peers into their neighbor's bedroom window; "Long Distance" (2 pages), a brief, powerful story about a woman's cold, distant conversations with her boyfriend; "Drop" (1 page), an account of an unfortunate incident by the author's father; and "Lunch Break" (5 pages), where a solitary elderly woman thinks back to happier times in the 1950's. 24 pages. First Printing: April 1995; Second Printing: February 1997. Third Printing: October 2001.
ISBN: 9781894937313
$2.95 US / $2.95 CDN
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Scrapbook
Adrian Tomine
The ultimate collection by one of the most recognized talents in graphic novels and includes over a decade of comics and illustrations by the still-under-30 Adrian Tomine, from Pulse to The New Yorker and Esquire, collected together for the first time in one sharply-designed book.
“Tomine is at the forefront of the younger generation of alternative-comics artists.” — Booklist
“Adrian Tomine captures the pathos of young adulthood with vignettes exquisitely rendered in a sharp, comic-noir style.” — Vibe Magazine
Scrapbook is the first comprehensive Adrian Tomine collection. Here you’ll find the complete run of strips which was originally published in Tower Records’ Pulse Magazine which Adrian started when he was only 17, along with comics originally published in Details and a host of other magazines of the past decade. A large section of scrapbook is dedicated to Tomine’s extensive illustration and design work, featuring his best material over the years from virtually every major publication in America including The New Yorker, Details, Esquire, and the late JFK Jr.-edited George. Tomine’s art has also graced popular album covers and posters for bands such as The Eels and Weezer and posters and it’s all included here in this beautifuly packaged book
ISBN: 9781896597775
$24.95 US / $24.95 CDN
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Shortcomings
Adrian Tomine
"Tomine's genius is to strip his medium of every possible type of grandiosity or indulgence, and the result is that life itself floods in. His mise-en-scene rivals Eric Rohmer's in its gentle precision, and his mastery of narrative time suggests Alice Munro. Shortcomings, as near as he'd get to a grand statement, is as deceptively relaxed and perfect as a comic book gets." --Jonathan Lethem
"One of the most masterful cartoonists of his generation, 32-year-old Adrian Tomine's [Shortcomings] centers on Asian-American protagonist Ben Tanaka, a lonely, socially constricted man, longing to make a connection and spinning in the purgatory between youth and adulthood... equal parts poignant, hilarious, and sad." --The Village Voice
Ben Tanaka has problems. In addition to being rampantly critical, sarcastic, and insensitive, his long–term 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.
Click here to enter the Shortcomings mini-site!
ISBN: 9781897299166
$19.95 US / $19.95 CDN
in stock
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Preview (PDF) |
Summer Blonde (PB)
Adrian Tomine
The critic Dan Raeburn describes this book best, "Ten years from now, when respectable Gotham magazines are publishing Tomine's comics as short stories in their own right, you will have this book to prove that you were here first."
With a deft and romantic touch, Tomine portrays the emotional ambivalence of drifting, urban twenty-somethings in stunning black and white. His stories are appealingly naturalistic, stylishly cinematic, and emotionally rich. His fans accuse him of eavesdropping on their most intimate moments, exhibiting their insecurities with both forensic detachment and surprising compassion.
COLLECTS STORIES ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN OPTIC NERVE #'s 5, 6, 7, and 8.
ISBN: 9781896597577
$16.95 US / $16.95 CDN
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Optic Nerve Poster
Adrian Tomine
18 x 24 " ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE
ISBN: ONPOSTER
$8.95 US / $8.95 CDN
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Summer Blonde Poster
Adrian Tomine
18 x 24" ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE
ISBN: SBPOSTER
$10.95 US / $10.95 CDN
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32 Stories
Adrian Tomine
"Each turn of the page unfolds a documentary of a blossoming artist." --Minneapolis City Pages
"Worth reading just for Tomine's eloquent restraint and literary leanings." --The Boston Phoenix
"Easily the most prodigious talent to burst on the alternative scene in several years..." --The Comics Journal
"Deftly rendered character sketches. In these narratives, we see a keen, expanding intelligence at work." --Wired
ISBN: 9781896597003
$12.95 US / $12.95 CDN
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copyright ©2004 drawn & quarterly
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