Scrapbook: Uncollected Work, 1990-2004

by Adrian Tomine

'Scrapbook' presents a comprehensive collection of the work of Adrian Tomine, ranging from the strips originally published in Tower Records' 'Pulse' magazine to his illustration and design work.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Art, Fiction, Sequential Art, Graphic Novels Comics, Design

203 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

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

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Scrapbook" is just that, a mix of comic strips, commercial artwork, and sketches from his notebooks. Some of the comic strips remind me of the 32 Stories book where Tomine's early 90s work is scratchy and largely amateurish compared to his standards today. That said they show a master of the medium learning the ropes, seeing what works and what doesn't. The stories vary from 6 panel short stories to 24 panels. One of them shows a couple breaking up in parallel to their favourite band "Crabwalk" breaking up. Later on, Tomine redoes the same strip, almost panel for panel, except with the knowledge that it is now based on a real life relationship of his and he changes the band to the Pixies who had broken up at that time. It's interesting as it shows the confidence Tomine's gotten in the 2nd strip to the 1st, and also because I like the Pixies.

The design work is wonderful, ranging from CD album artwork for bands like Weezer and Eels (his drawing of E is magnificent), to adverts for Coca-Cola, posters for local events, promos for Drawn & Quarterly. It all shows Tomine's range and some are so good I wish I had them as posters to put up. The sketches too are excellent and show how a comics artist creates his strips in utero. Very cool stuff.

Fascinating book, great artwork, just don't expect a graphic novel like "Shortcomings" and think more along the lines of "32 Stories" with extras. Good stuff.

[Jake Nap]

A collection of published and unpublished 1-3 page stories, sketches and illustrations by Adrian Tomine. I’d only pick this one up if you’ve read everything he’s done and are itching for more.

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not really fair to give this three stars, because it does what it says on the tin. It's hard to rate an odds-and-ends scrapbook, I guess. This one shows lots of excellent artwork, some in the largest size ever published, in a mostly chronological layout. It's good for superfans and completists mostly.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Adrian Tomine's work - and here we get to see some of the bits and pieces, the magazine covers, the posters, the single-panel strips and some workbook ideas. Some of it is brilliant. All of it is worth checking out. Some very dark, funny panels too.

[Stephane · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the completist, if you want to read everything Tomine, there are some interesting one pager in there but it is the unpublished work, the "B-side" so the quality fluctuates. I really like Adrian Tomine, and this was the only thing available at my public library I hadn't read, so I am happy.

[白い世界 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Eszter Szép · Rating 5 out of 5]

His early comics - one page-stories about music and films - show such a genuine interest in other people, lives, and small decisions. Love it!

[D.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish more comic creators would do this. What Tomine has done here isn't just a slap-dash collection of sketchbook imagery or a half-assed stab at something absolutely complete. He knows what the fans want, and he's personally curated this collection to give it.
Scrapbook is divided into three clear and concise sections: first is comics, which offers a motherlode of some never-before-seen strips, some hard-to-find strips from various printed sources and some nascent versions of strips with which devoted readers will be familiar; next is a section Tomine regards (in his excellent introduction to the book) as 'Whore Work,' including a fantastic assortment of commercial art he did for bands, advertising, articles...basically anybody who wanted him and was willing to pay (this section is pretty precisely annotated in the back, with occasional notes from Tomine); and finally, of course, is a fairly tight and in no way close to comprehensive selection of sketchbook offerings, ranging from live art models to full-colour rough designs for some of the Optic Nerve collections.
Naturally, the entire thing is wrapped up in a Tomine-designed cover featuring a full-colour version of a sepia split-7" cover from inside (on the front) and some thumbnail samples of what to expect within the book (on the back). Interior work is presented in full-colour, monochrome and black-and-white, as appropriate.
This book provides plenty of filling-in-of-blanks for ardent fans of Tomine's work, showing both how hard he has worked to arrive where he is and that he did not just appear fully-formed from nowhere. Even readers unfamiliar with Tomine's Optic Nerve stories will find plenty to amuse and enthrall between these covers. If more artists did books like this, I'd probably have a hell of a lot more art books.

[Liam O'Leary · Rating 2 out of 5]

This 'B-sides collection' caters more to casual fans of Tomine (looking for more material), but not newcomers or more ardent fans (looking for insightful material). This is not a diary, journal, sketchbook...it is a scrapbook, and the problem with that is that the scrap is still too refined!

Section one contains sketches which are fully polished yet either substandard or more fully developed in Optic Nerve;

Section two contains one-page illustrations, the best of which being the worst of which that also appear in New York Drawings;

Section three contains a sketchbook which has been highly filtered to be as sparse and refined as it is for someone who makes as much good work as Tomine. I wanted to see Tomine at his worst, and I feel like he was too shy.

...
So what I think is the problem here, as implied in the foreword, is that Tomine has too rigorously edited section one and three for quality. I wanted to see more of the messy pencil sketches, scene layouts and failed ideas that surely must exist. Chris Ware's 'Acme Novelty Datebook' and Anders Nilsen's 'Poetry Is Useless' were more interesting to read in this respect.

[Batmark · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://morethansuperhumans.blogspot.c...

Adrian Tomine's Scrapbook is divided into three parts. The first section contains short stories Tomine wrote and drew for various magazines (as well as some unfinished pieces), the second section contains spot illustrations Tomine drew for clients such as the New Yorker as well as some album covers and fliers, and the third section contains sketchbook material.

For fans of Tomine this is an important book, but if you're new to his work I would suggest starting elsewhere (perhaps with Shortcomings or Sleepwalk and Other Stories). It's particularly interesting to read alternate versions of a few stories that appeared (in slightly different forms) in Tomine's other collections. And it's nice to have Tomine's various spot illustrations under one cover.

[Bill Doughty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably not the place to start if you're looking to get into the work of alt-comics artist/writer Adrian Tomine (for that, go for one of the Optic Nerve collections), but if you're already a fan, this is great fun. All sorts of material here - sketches, magazine pieces, single panel cartoons, album covers, band posters, t-shirt designs, foreign Optic Nerve collection covers, etc. Not the sort of thing you're ever gonna sit down and read straight through, but great to browse through when the mood strikes.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I bought it after encountering an excerpt from Tomine's collection (which is coming out in the next few months) in the Best american comics 2007 anthology and I was hooked and really wanted to hear the rest of the story. Since the rest of the story was not easy to find I picked up this early collection of his and felt as though I had traveled back to 1995 or so. An interesting feeling made all the more real by the fact that the format is graphic, not just text.

[Jen Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a Tomine fence sitter. Sometimes I totally dig his stuff, but oftentimes the jerktastic dudes put me off. This collection was interesting because you get see his older work, along with some of his commercial graphic art. There are some gems in here, and it's nice to see some of his rougher, less self conscious stuff.

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting early works from Adrian Tomine. I really enjoyed and loved the sketchbook part. Having read most of Tomine's other books this was certainly a great look at the way his style and storytelling has developed over the years. I think the themes (which I love) are still the same though.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories here are completely amazing and Tomine's drawing is great. I kind of wish he'd get back to telling stories like this instead of the goofiness of Optic Nerve #13 but a a girl can dream. Maybe he's tired of saying all the big things he had to say.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of vignettes, illustrations, and pieces of stories - just the right thing to pass a very boring hour at the reference desk. Tomine does a great job of evoking a particular feeling, a moment, or a relationship in a couple of simple panels. I really liked this a lot.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more graphic art than anything else, but it still got me through high school.

[Photo Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always liked looking at Tomine's work more than reading it. I picked "Scrapbook" up for a dollar at Half-Price Books. This collection gives a nice insight to his work.

[BRAIN_QUEEN · Rating 3 out of 5]

eh, not my favorite. kinda boring. some good drawings.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

im not the biggest tomine fan but this is a cool book of his older comics and some cool commercial design work

[Shanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good car read.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why is this guy so awesome?! Thanks Dan and Leslee!

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's fun to peek inside the minds of artists/writers that you love. This was a fun venture into Adrian's mind and see a bunch of stuff that wasn't really related to Optic Nerve.

[Sean Hammond]

Another collection of graphic novels that I picked out of the library on a whim.

[Chelsea Wolf]

Use his work for reference all the time. Great artist, great story teller.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may just sympathize with Tomine – his introduction to the compilation resonates, and his sketchbook has some great color work.

[James Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great sample of Tomine's early comics work, illustration work, and a little bit of a look at his sketchbook. I really enjoyed looking through this.

[Shoshanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of sketches. Short comics. Ads. You know, he's a great comics artist so worth checking out from the library at least!

[Beth Hawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the sketchbook section of this.

[Zanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

36.95