ewee (6/26): Optic Nerve (issues 1-10), by Adrian Tomine

[yep, this is the last from my weekend of retail therapy. will have to go back to the library soon. wallet can't take much more.]

Optic Nerve by Adrian Tomine isn't technically a book, but since I could have bought the collections and read them, i'm hoping i'll get away with it. (anyway, the collections only have four issues per book, so this is undercounting. really.)

optic nerve captures life with such truth that it kinda creeps me out. tomine's characters are plagued with a malaise so familiar that i find myself disturbed and depressed. yet they're somehow also inspiring, hard to put down, and linger long after i've finished reading them. the characters are subtle, the landscape is familiar (he's in the bay area, after all), and the stories are painfully real. the overall effect is haunting and understated, a good combo for halloween, perhaps?

aah, i'm not feeling particularly eloquent today, so i'll just link to what other folks have to say...

From bookslut's interview:
With D&Q now taking the burden of distribution, Tomine was free to concentrate on what he does best: write and draw the stories that have continued to hit the nerve of a growing literature hungry audience. Whenever I meet someone who believes that comic books begin and end with men in tights and women with back breaking breasts I pass them a copy of Optic Nerve.

From Time.com's review:
What makes Tomine's work difficult for some is the naturalism. He tells stories that feel more like short exposures of ordinary people's lives, rather than plot-heavy adventures or overt comedy. These stories don't begin and end so much as fade in and out.

More links:

• asian week's review
• nichi bei times' review
• buy his art