Optic Nerve #2

Optic Nerve #2

by Adrian Tomine

Tomine offers four stories in this second 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.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Comic Book, Short Stories, Graphic Novels Comics, Sequential Art

Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Adrian Tomine was born in 1974 in Sacramento, California. He began self-publishing his comic book series Optic Nerve. His comics have been anthologized in publications such as McSweeney’s, Best American Comics, and Best American Nonrequired Reading, and his graphic novel "Shortcomings" was a New York Times Notable Book of 2007. His next release, "Killing and Dying" will be published by Drawn and Quarterly in October 2015.

Since 1999, Tomine has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughters.

Reviews

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four short stories: Tomine rocks.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was shocked when I read the letters page in “Optic Nerve” #2. It seemed like a lot of readers felt that his work in the debut issue of the Drawn & Quarterly series reboot was sterile and lifeless and I couldn’t disagree more. Maybe it’s the benefit of hindsight, but I thought “Optic Nerve” #1 was some of Adrian Tomine’s warmest work, both art- and writing-wise, a trend that developed even more in this second issue. Tomine’s work today is extremely crisp and efficient whereas the four stories in this comic are a little more spacious and emotional. Each one deals with yearning in some fashion - for love, for a purpose, for a connection - and each one is a gem (although, if I had to pick a favorite, I’d go with “Layover,” which hit my heart just a little bit deeper than the others).

[B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s a letter from James Kochalka, Tom Kaczynski, and Julie Doucet.

[Shawn Robare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, the second issue was twice as bleak as the first. Pink Frosting is like a hard kick in the nuts…

[Tricia]

my favorite story was the Connecting Thread which reminds of the times how I want to write about strangers I wish I talked to.

[Nayeli · Rating 3 out of 5]

On this one I liked the first and the last story the most, should I feel "manipulated" by clever editing? Anyhow, the reader comments are hilarious.

[Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paranoia's always a huge subject. It's inevitable for me not to wonder about strangers life.

[Tamara]

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