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.
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).