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Present
A lyrical exploration of the city and memory, as drawn by a Vice cartoonist
Leslie Stein takes us on a sinuous urban stroll divorced from destination, glimpsing New York City through her open eyes. While she is closing up a bar late at night, she is also an adolescent at a rave in the mountains, an adult grappling with her grandfather's fading memory or at one of her first waitressing jobs. Stein is a master storyteller, an urban explorer, and a loyal guide through dark days and simple, blissful encounters. Stein's curiosity about and generosity toward the world around her come through powerfully: each colorful story flows with vivid watercolors and delicate ink lines. Here, an autobiography is built through memories and moments tied together by loose lines, evoking a beautiful dreamlike yet endlessly relatable glimpse into the world of a thirty-something woman carving out a life for herself, one step at a time.
Known for her acclaimed Eye of the Majestic Creature series, collected here are Stein's serialized Vice.com comics which have become a staple for the site, showcasing her storytelling abilities with a freer style. With an introduction and new material, Present will be a deluxe die-cut hardcover that is a meditation on memory. Stein asks us to take a moment to be here now, while acknowledging the other places and people we always carry with us.
Leslie Stein takes us on a sinuous urban stroll divorced from destination, glimpsing New York City through her open eyes. While she is closing up a bar late at night, she is also an adolescent at a rave in the mountains, an adult grappling with her grandfather's fading memory or at one of her first waitressing jobs. Stein is a master storyteller, an urban explorer, and a loyal guide through dark days and simple, blissful encounters. Stein's curiosity about and generosity toward the world around her come through powerfully: each colorful story flows with vivid watercolors and delicate ink lines. Here, an autobiography is built through memories and moments tied together by loose lines, evoking a beautiful dreamlike yet endlessly relatable glimpse into the world of a thirty-something woman carving out a life for herself, one step at a time.
Known for her acclaimed Eye of the Majestic Creature series, collected here are Stein's serialized Vice.com comics which have become a staple for the site, showcasing her storytelling abilities with a freer style. With an introduction and new material, Present will be a deluxe die-cut hardcover that is a meditation on memory. Stein asks us to take a moment to be here now, while acknowledging the other places and people we always carry with us.
168 pages, Hardcover
First published October 17, 2017
1 person is currently reading
335 people want to read
About the author
Leslie Stein
8 books5 followersLeslie Stein is an American cartoonist and rock musician living in Brooklyn, New York. Her diary comics have been featured on Vice and The New Yorker and collected as books by Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
October 31, 2017
Here's a taste, from the Vice site Stein contributes to:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/topic/lesl...
My second book of Stein's work, the first being Bright-Eyed at Midnight. This one feels more ambitious, what she calls an "abstract" approach to art with interestingly very minimal faces (what, you don't like to draw faces, Leslie?). These are kind of meandering, elliptically-linked moments in a NYC life working in a bar, very gently inked and watercolored. The whole impression is of a kind of wandering, easy life of an alone and sometimes lonely and always sweet and vulnerable person.
In one favorite vignette she is in a bar, sitting alone, and sees an interesting person; she wonders who it might be, this pretty, interesting person. It is herself, in a mirror! Another fave is Mom Guilt, in which she shares her own guilty moments, and other bar patrons share theirs. There are moments of teaching and celebrating kids's art, a story of Grandpa, and of just strolling aimlessly around the city. Eating sushi. Drinking.
The title of the book refers to how she flips the script on how she sees art; instead of seeing the work as merely a challenge, she tries to think of it as a gift, or present. At one point, her mother asks for an original Leslie Stein painting for her birthday, too. This book is Stein's present to us.
No politics. She says she wants her comics to be "a safe space," and it is.
You're an eagle, Leslie, not a turtle!
https://www.vice.com/en_us/topic/lesl...
My second book of Stein's work, the first being Bright-Eyed at Midnight. This one feels more ambitious, what she calls an "abstract" approach to art with interestingly very minimal faces (what, you don't like to draw faces, Leslie?). These are kind of meandering, elliptically-linked moments in a NYC life working in a bar, very gently inked and watercolored. The whole impression is of a kind of wandering, easy life of an alone and sometimes lonely and always sweet and vulnerable person.
In one favorite vignette she is in a bar, sitting alone, and sees an interesting person; she wonders who it might be, this pretty, interesting person. It is herself, in a mirror! Another fave is Mom Guilt, in which she shares her own guilty moments, and other bar patrons share theirs. There are moments of teaching and celebrating kids's art, a story of Grandpa, and of just strolling aimlessly around the city. Eating sushi. Drinking.
The title of the book refers to how she flips the script on how she sees art; instead of seeing the work as merely a challenge, she tries to think of it as a gift, or present. At one point, her mother asks for an original Leslie Stein painting for her birthday, too. This book is Stein's present to us.
No politics. She says she wants her comics to be "a safe space," and it is.
You're an eagle, Leslie, not a turtle!
January 22, 2018
Hmm … this was … interesting. These are short, slice-of-life, autobio comics. Stein has a fascinating style that verges on pure abstraction. Her characters’ faces are practically nonexistent, just empty voids with dots for eyes and a line for the mouth. Add on a layer of watercolors to suggest some of the forms that her lines omit, and … voila! There's a delicate quality to the work, helped by her penchant for depicting life’s moments of quiet reflection. It's good work, but just a little too light and airy for my liking. None of the stories, while good, struck me as particularly memorable. I’m glad that I read this, and I’d even say I enjoyed it. But I likely won't read it again or even think about it much unless I encounter some Leslie Stein work that makes more of an impact on me.
January 17, 2018
This is my third dive into Stein's work, the first being Bright-eyed at Midnight and the second being Time Clock. The latter wasn't really to my tastes, but I quite enjoyed the former, so I was really excited to read this as I knew it was going back to her comic diary format.
There's not much to say about this tbh. Stein writes and illustrates little vignettes about her life bar tending, being an artist and her random musings. It's really lovely, but it's hard to describe - you just have to check them out yourself. Reading Stein, especially this work, kind of feels like chatting with a friend, or being enveloped in a warm hug (or both at the same time). There's a warmth to her writing that's so welcoming and inviting.
Her art is very loose and minimalist, but this kind of contributes to the vignettes feeling like lived memories, something she's recalling. It took some getting used to when I read BRIGHT EYED, but now that I have a handle on it, I absolutely love it. The little bursts of water colour sits well with the soft prose.
I really hope Stein keeps putting more of these diary-comic works out.
There's not much to say about this tbh. Stein writes and illustrates little vignettes about her life bar tending, being an artist and her random musings. It's really lovely, but it's hard to describe - you just have to check them out yourself. Reading Stein, especially this work, kind of feels like chatting with a friend, or being enveloped in a warm hug (or both at the same time). There's a warmth to her writing that's so welcoming and inviting.
Her art is very loose and minimalist, but this kind of contributes to the vignettes feeling like lived memories, something she's recalling. It took some getting used to when I read BRIGHT EYED, but now that I have a handle on it, I absolutely love it. The little bursts of water colour sits well with the soft prose.
I really hope Stein keeps putting more of these diary-comic works out.
March 3, 2021
The hip, unique art style is the highlight here and made it an enjoyable read for me. The stories themselves were a bit up and down for me at times.
August 5, 2020
Wow, this book is ALL about the form. forget the function.
I mean, the content is accessible enough (if my "i've had this book checked out for five months because pandemic" memory of reading it is at all accurate). Daily life things (see "read with" list below).
But these illustrations are something new.
First of all, the cover has cutouts (the circles around each figure).
And throughout the book, Stein plays with lots of different ways of getting marks on a page. Mostly brightly colored.
Her palette is unusual - is it weird to say it feels... young?
Her figures are (as others have and will note) mostly noseless, and virtually always jawline-/facial outlineless.
There are no panels. Or speech bubbles.
Stein uses some manga-adjacent symbology, if I'm not mistaken.
Which all left me with the effect of the author/protagonist character floating along through life, detached from and connected (at the same time) to everything.
It's quite the mood.
read with:
Julia Wertz
Our Cats are More Famous Than Us: A Johnny Wander Collection
Dragon's Breath: And Other True Stories
And a bunch of NYC-based autobiographical stuff that is slipping my mind at the moment.
Oh and, Asterios Polyp (which I'm extremely proud to admit that I spelled right on my first try) for some aesthetic similarity.
I mean, the content is accessible enough (if my "i've had this book checked out for five months because pandemic" memory of reading it is at all accurate). Daily life things (see "read with" list below).
But these illustrations are something new.
First of all, the cover has cutouts (the circles around each figure).
And throughout the book, Stein plays with lots of different ways of getting marks on a page. Mostly brightly colored.
Her palette is unusual - is it weird to say it feels... young?
Her figures are (as others have and will note) mostly noseless, and virtually always jawline-/facial outlineless.
There are no panels. Or speech bubbles.
Stein uses some manga-adjacent symbology, if I'm not mistaken.
Which all left me with the effect of the author/protagonist character floating along through life, detached from and connected (at the same time) to everything.
It's quite the mood.
read with:
Julia Wertz
Our Cats are More Famous Than Us: A Johnny Wander Collection
Dragon's Breath: And Other True Stories
And a bunch of NYC-based autobiographical stuff that is slipping my mind at the moment.
Oh and, Asterios Polyp (which I'm extremely proud to admit that I spelled right on my first try) for some aesthetic similarity.
July 25, 2018
A couple of gems are hiding in this noodling collection of autobiographical short stories, but the navel gazing gets so intense that at times the author neglects to even draw the people with whom her cartoon character is talking. (Peanuts homage, maybe?) Other people might identify with this material, but it seemed dull and pointless to me.
The creator goes out of the way to mention a couple of times how pretty she is, which, y’know, great for her and her self-image, but odd for this book where faces are portrayed as large white voids with two dots and a short line serving more as an emoticon than a face.
The creator goes out of the way to mention a couple of times how pretty she is, which, y’know, great for her and her self-image, but odd for this book where faces are portrayed as large white voids with two dots and a short line serving more as an emoticon than a face.
June 2, 2018
5+ out of 5.
Gosh, I loved this. Charming, sweet, funny, poignant, beautiful -- above all, just truly beautiful artwork. It takes a second to adjust to what Stein is doing here but there's something so powerful about the expressionistic bent she takes, and the way it illuminates the stories she's telling. The one from the day after the election made me cry, and several made me laugh. I hope she keeps doing these for Vice, or even just in collections, for a long, long time; it's nice to be able to go through life with little moments like these to keep one company.
Gosh, I loved this. Charming, sweet, funny, poignant, beautiful -- above all, just truly beautiful artwork. It takes a second to adjust to what Stein is doing here but there's something so powerful about the expressionistic bent she takes, and the way it illuminates the stories she's telling. The one from the day after the election made me cry, and several made me laugh. I hope she keeps doing these for Vice, or even just in collections, for a long, long time; it's nice to be able to go through life with little moments like these to keep one company.
April 26, 2018
It took me a few pages to get used to Leslie Stein's very minimalist drawing style, but once I did it was impossible to put this book down. It's a compilation of slice-of-life vignettes that are wonderfully drawn and easy to relate to. I'm definitely going to be revisiting this one a few times.
February 10, 2018
This is a bit of a tough one to "rate" because I absolutely LOVE her drawing style, from the abstract-ish faces to the lovely watercolor usage. And while I have to remind the traditional part of me that memories and vignettes are a perfectly viable way of describing a life- that it doesn't have to be a chronological "story"- I just didn't feel like there was enough here. There were some sweet moments, and she seems like a person I would like, but I just wanted more.
April 6, 2018
I've never come across comics where people's faces are drawn in the style used here - very minimal with just eyes and mouth floating there with no outline. The panels are similarly undefined and floating, while the memoirish stories have a wandering tone, unified around New York City, walking around, restaurants. I liked this collection.
June 15, 2024
I think this author is better at creating images than telling a story. The whole book is disjointed and doesn’t have a unified narrative. I liked the creative images and art, but I think the format of a book doesn’t suit this style. It really feels like it’s a converted webcomic or instagram comic that has been cut into a coffee table or display book.
January 17, 2018
I appreciate Leslie stein's style, but I'm here for story and these were all a little too disjointy for me.
July 2, 2018
Nesugebejau net pabaigti, kad ir kokia nediduke si knygele. Nepatiko nei naivios istorijos, nei piesimo stilius.
July 19, 2018
A little too scattered for me.
January 5, 2018
Just when I thought I’d seen every type of autobio comic out there, here comes Leslie Stein with “Present,” her latest collection of delicate, abstract vignettes. Rendered in soft, stylized watercolors, these short stories about eating sushi, going to jazz clubs, drawing comics, and tending bar feel gentle and dreamy, not at all what I’d expect from a cartoonist who serializes her work on the Vice website. Some might dismiss Stein’s work as precious or even twee but I found “Present” to be a sweet and sincere piece of art.
“Comics Leslie” is little more than a mound of tousled hair, a face that’s barely suggested, and limbs that are little more than lines and circles to suggest bones and joints. And yet “Real Leslie,” the cartoonist, is somehow able to convey a whole heckuva lot of emotion through her watercolor avatar. Perhaps it’s the influence of her poetic storytelling, her ability to pick small but important moments, that give these comics such an emotional weight. Without panel borders or boxes full of narration, Stein’s pages look more like pages from an illustrated diary or - better yet - like minimalist paintings. It’s hard to describe comics about hangovers and elderly dementia as innocent or playful but “Present” seems to embrace those contradictions and run with them.
Loose, colorful, and confident, “Present” is autobio with an abstract twist. Based on her comics, Leslie Stein may feel unremarkable at times but her pages are always magic... Also, if you ever need a quick pick-me-up, read her comic, “Sub,” about filling in as an art instructor for a class of young girls; their uninhibited approach to making comics - and Stein’s wholehearted encouragement - are beautiful to witness.
“Comics Leslie” is little more than a mound of tousled hair, a face that’s barely suggested, and limbs that are little more than lines and circles to suggest bones and joints. And yet “Real Leslie,” the cartoonist, is somehow able to convey a whole heckuva lot of emotion through her watercolor avatar. Perhaps it’s the influence of her poetic storytelling, her ability to pick small but important moments, that give these comics such an emotional weight. Without panel borders or boxes full of narration, Stein’s pages look more like pages from an illustrated diary or - better yet - like minimalist paintings. It’s hard to describe comics about hangovers and elderly dementia as innocent or playful but “Present” seems to embrace those contradictions and run with them.
Loose, colorful, and confident, “Present” is autobio with an abstract twist. Based on her comics, Leslie Stein may feel unremarkable at times but her pages are always magic... Also, if you ever need a quick pick-me-up, read her comic, “Sub,” about filling in as an art instructor for a class of young girls; their uninhibited approach to making comics - and Stein’s wholehearted encouragement - are beautiful to witness.
May 9, 2023
Beautiful illustrations that I fell in love with when I saw it on the shelf. I found a lot of the stories very relatable and loved the abstract nature of the art. A but hard to follow the dialogue at times but overall a lovely and quick read with adorable artwork
March 27, 2018
Holy Relatable Content, Batman.
This book gave me the warm fuzzies and made me feel less alone.
Also the art is very cool. Complicated mixed media but somehow minimalist. Also the book is printed on thick matte paper which I like very much.
Okay, cool, bye
This book gave me the warm fuzzies and made me feel less alone.
Also the art is very cool. Complicated mixed media but somehow minimalist. Also the book is printed on thick matte paper which I like very much.
Okay, cool, bye
August 1, 2022
Just like Leslie Stein, I'm obsessed with Paul Klee. It's not easy to be as emotionally vulnerable as both of them are and still maintain a high level of craftsmanship and tonal consistency.
The rhythm of a few of these stories doesn't quite fit together, but overall, it's got its jazz logic of riffs and chords of sunset-colored washes and spare lines. I didn't like Walkin', but I at least enjoyed if not loved all of the other stories here.
The rhythm of a few of these stories doesn't quite fit together, but overall, it's got its jazz logic of riffs and chords of sunset-colored washes and spare lines. I didn't like Walkin', but I at least enjoyed if not loved all of the other stories here.
November 20, 2017
Love Leslie's art style, how her characters arms are jus lines and circles for elbows, how her character don't have out lines for their face-their created by negative space. Her work is very abstract and whimsical and the comics pulled together for this book are little slices of life. A great read to pick up every now and again.
November 5, 2018
Although some of the motifs of this book are similar to Julia Wertz's book Drinking at the Movies (New York occurrences, comics, bartending, overdrinking, living alone), I found this much more emotionally affecting. Stein isn't afraid to be vulnerable in her comics and the coloring of so many of these panels is just beautiful.
January 23, 2018
At first glance this might seem like a book for a much younger audience; the watercolor art is so very colorful. However, this New Adult book is a comic diary that I think says a lot about creativity, relationships and how we view life. It was quite beautiful.
December 6, 2018
Beautiful art with some clever comments but overall was a bit difficult to read with the gorgeous art style. I wasn't invested in her story at all which affected my reading.
November 5, 2022
I really liked this. The art, the stories, the artist herself seems sweet and like the kind of person I would like to be friends with.
Notes I took on what I liked while reading:
- The way that she puts a watercolor brushstroke behind text in certain areas to enhance it, or differentiate it from other areas of text
- The font and colors on “Happy Daughter’s Day, Leslie!”
- Some fun drawing tips: in “Vanguard” the drawing to music activity she did with her workshop, and when she went to draw live music at a jazz club.
- The panic in “Night Out”. Too real and she depicted it well, using the single contrasting watercolor brushstroke underneath each image of herself.
- “Exes”.
- “Accidents” (maybe my favorite story in this book. Relatable, and a sweet ending.)
- “The Littlest Memory”. (And the kitchen background on the title page for this story. There’s something my very sweet and homey about it.)
- The batik style watercolor “Walkin” title page.
- The way she drew the lights on the “Omakase” title page. Very simple but very cool. Circles, lines, watercolor. Also, I really liked this story a lot. Page 96 & 97. “Sometimes I wish I had kept it…if only to know that I didn’t make the whole thing up in my head.” Mmm! 🫰
- “Thanksgiving” (especially the art on page 108. Again, I just really like the way she uses watercolor.)
- “The Bridge”
- “Favorite Customer”
- “Perfect Day”. And the page with Tom Harrell playing trumpet is great. All of page 144.
Notes I took on what I liked while reading:
- The way that she puts a watercolor brushstroke behind text in certain areas to enhance it, or differentiate it from other areas of text
- The font and colors on “Happy Daughter’s Day, Leslie!”
- Some fun drawing tips: in “Vanguard” the drawing to music activity she did with her workshop, and when she went to draw live music at a jazz club.
- The panic in “Night Out”. Too real and she depicted it well, using the single contrasting watercolor brushstroke underneath each image of herself.
- “Exes”.
- “Accidents” (maybe my favorite story in this book. Relatable, and a sweet ending.)
- “The Littlest Memory”. (And the kitchen background on the title page for this story. There’s something my very sweet and homey about it.)
- The batik style watercolor “Walkin” title page.
- The way she drew the lights on the “Omakase” title page. Very simple but very cool. Circles, lines, watercolor. Also, I really liked this story a lot. Page 96 & 97. “Sometimes I wish I had kept it…if only to know that I didn’t make the whole thing up in my head.” Mmm! 🫰
- “Thanksgiving” (especially the art on page 108. Again, I just really like the way she uses watercolor.)
- “The Bridge”
- “Favorite Customer”
- “Perfect Day”. And the page with Tom Harrell playing trumpet is great. All of page 144.
February 1, 2025
This book is actually a re-read for me. I first found this book around my college years, when I going through anxiety and emotions. Reading this book actually helped me calm down and think about moments in my life like little stories, whether it was going to a venue by myself, or calling my mom, or seeing my family for the holidays.
This re-read brought me back to that time somewhat, but I made sure to pick up on the story linearity this time around. Once again I appreciate Stein's art style. It's one of the more unique styles I've seen - abstract, weird, and spontaneous, but still somehow complete. Her use of watercolors, paint splatters, calligraphy, and other media accentuate whatever she is illustrating. It evokes a sense of childlike wonder, and wander, as she meanders through life and still captures emotions and humor.
This re-read brought me back to that time somewhat, but I made sure to pick up on the story linearity this time around. Once again I appreciate Stein's art style. It's one of the more unique styles I've seen - abstract, weird, and spontaneous, but still somehow complete. Her use of watercolors, paint splatters, calligraphy, and other media accentuate whatever she is illustrating. It evokes a sense of childlike wonder, and wander, as she meanders through life and still captures emotions and humor.
April 1, 2020
This is my second time reading this collection, and it’s still fantastic. Very much in the tradition of earlier women autobio cartoonists like Julie Doucet and Aline Kominski-Crumb, but updated for the gig-work era.
Leslie Stein distills her layouts, her handwritten lettering style, her deceptively “light” subject matter, the hidden depths that she rarely opens herself to (but that still haunt many of these comics), her love of color, her abundant use of off-panel interlocutors, and more into a pared-down visual style that suits her ideas perfectly. Her comics are as visually efficient as a Peanuts strip and as packed full of epiphanies as a modernist novel.
While these comics won’t change your life, they might just change how you feel about it.
Leslie Stein distills her layouts, her handwritten lettering style, her deceptively “light” subject matter, the hidden depths that she rarely opens herself to (but that still haunt many of these comics), her love of color, her abundant use of off-panel interlocutors, and more into a pared-down visual style that suits her ideas perfectly. Her comics are as visually efficient as a Peanuts strip and as packed full of epiphanies as a modernist novel.
While these comics won’t change your life, they might just change how you feel about it.
October 31, 2017
The artwork of Leslie Stein's book is breathtaking & unique as hell. It took me a minute to really wrap my head around it (This is how she draws faces?), but when it did I was lost in every panel & picture. Blending slightly abstract characters with beautiful watercolors, I was as engrossed in every image as much as I was in her short excerpts of autobiographical moments & stories. I recommend this to everyone that enjoys something different from their art.
September 18, 2019
I'm used to YA so itt was different to read a grown-up's graphic novel. Leslie Stein presents little snippets from her life as an artist in NYC that highlight the beauty, sadness, and normalcy within the mundane. I really like her simplistic style of illustration and found her stories mostly relatable. Overall, a fun and quick read and a little reminder that we're all just trying to figure things out day by day.
April 28, 2025
So boring because it's too personal. Like idgaf what bird your brother thinks you are, or your mother found a box of your childhood drawings, or that someone at the bar said you're pretty with good bone structure. Only you care because these things happened to you. Almost like reading the diary of a totally unremarkable, average NPC. Drawing style has nice watercolors but it's so simplistic it's hard to tell what's happening sometimes. Made it halfway.
November 11, 2018
A bunch of little slices of life shorts. The writing and art style didn't always work for me, but there was heart and an attention to detail that gave it some weight. I think the second half drew me in more and by the end it felt like a more worthwhile read with a bit more structure I could use to understand the main character
January 3, 2020
I really enjoyed the art work in this book. The abstractness. How the people were mere plain figures with bright colored attachments. I found myself looking thoroughly at each picture to catch as much as I could. Leslie is very relateable. And the way the short stories in each chapter is told gives you just enough to identify with, without feeling the need to resolve everything by the end.
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