Optic Nerve #7

Optic Nerve #7

by Adrian Tomine

compelling and somewhat autobiographic black & white comic book

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

32 pages, Paperback

First published June 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

[Matt Graupman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Summer Blonde,” the stand-alone story in “Optic Nerve” #7, might be my favorite comic of Adrian Tomine’s one-man anthology series. Tomine’s comics tend to be fairly straightforward in their storytelling style but “Summer Blonde” really kept me on my toes. The characters are so multilayered and complex, I couldn’t help but be drawn into their story; a warning, though: it’s a pretty nihilistic story. “Summer Blonde” seems like the closest Adrian Tomine has ever come to a manifesto: everyone is terrible and they’ll only look out for themselves. And yet, I still love this issue. Perhaps it’s because the comic has an actual ending - or, with Tomine’s work, what passes for an ending - so there’s a greater sense of closure to this story than you’d typically get in “Optic Nerve.” It’s a tasty, bitter little treat.

[Shawn Robare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love that the stories are getting longer.

[Ikembe Brew Har-Har · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walked my eyeballs right through the story

[Nayeli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know much about Mr. Tomine, but by now I assume that leaving things unanswered is his style, and it works for a lot of stories (the shorter ones, mostly). With this one I'm not so sure, although I enjoyed it throughout I found myself almost screaming "no! don't end it yet!" Oh well.

[Kevin English · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read on the plane. Carlo is the man.