Nameless -- Issue #01

This is a comic that I'm nervous to like right off the bat. The artwork, specifically the perspective in the illustrations are amazing, stuff like I've never seen before. Although it was a classic first issue, and you really have no clue how to describe what the story is actually about, the base idea seems really awesome. I read further online about what Grant Morrison's idea was with this, and I stumbled upon something that lead me to find out that this series is supposed to be a very dark, very gruesome thriller/horror story. Not that I got that intense of a vibe from the first issue, but Morrison made a warning about the first issue giving just a slight taste of the storyline and then its going to blast off and just continue to get more and more horrible as the story goes on.

I just .. don't want to have nightmares.

The Dying & The Dead -- Issue #01

In the first issue, even though its double the length of any regular single issue, still, classically don't really know what is going on yet. At the begging of the issue a man and woman are getting married but the day goes to hell when a massacre takes place at the wedding with a twist of who done it. As the reader, we are introduced to lots of secrets that had been kept from characters, coming to light. Additionally, a man is given the opportunity, at great cost to help save his dying wife from cancer. There is a 'death' type character who is relating to the man, seems to be thousands upon thousands of years old, but hasn't aged a day over 40.

The artwork is really beautiful. It's really hard to get into a story or not just from one issue. Especially these types of issues that are meant to be cryptic and suspenseful so that you as the reader is like WHAT JUST HAPPENED - sign me up.

Not yet feeling this way quite yet, but I will read more of this because I can see it could get good.

Jordan Wellington Lint -- Graphic Novel

MAN, CHRIS WARE. What-is-up.

Chris Ware has a way of making you feel a person's entire life with so few words. I felt this way with "Jimmy Corrigan the Smartest Kid on Earth", but that was a thick read, this one can't be more than 100 pages and yet I still feel emotionally exhausted from that. (In a wonderful way).

In this story, Jordan Wellington Lint follows one man's life from birth to death with all of its twists, turns and predictable melancholy along the way. Nothing crazy really happens, Jordan/Jason goes to college, is in a frat, graduates, gets married, has children, has an affair, leaves his family, starts a new family, goes to work, etc, etc. Pretty similar life to a large percentage of the population. Pretty boring. So why would I read a story about a privileged white male who is probably a huge dick. Because of Chris Ware's approach to illustration and the way he handles narration, or I guess, doesn't.

He's telling you a story, but instead of doing it with dialogue or chronological events, he uses the character's memories and emotions to portray feelings of certain things or feelings about certain things, and while many events aren't spelled out for you visually, you understand the characters mood and truth because you've gotten the story directly from them, not through a narrator. His approach is deeply exhausting, out of context and at times very unclear, but you feel a strong connection with these characters because you're in their head thinking with them.

Breaking down events to their very core, showing us their most simple form, Ware has a ware of speaking in a code of symbols but hitting the readers with some sort of unspeakable truth. It is really remarkable and GOSH DARN IT HE DOES IT SO WELL.

Sleepwalk and Other Stories -- Graphic Novel

Sleepwalk and Other Stories collects the first four issues of Adrian Tomine's comic series Optic Nerve with a total of 16 short stories.

I feel the same way about these as I did the other two collected stories I've read from him. Not much else to say.

Probably a word of warning is don't do what I'm doing and read everything of his all at once or you'll have too many feelings at the same time and then some of the feelings will go away and then you'll just be left feeling sad.

Summer Blonde -- Graphic Novel

Summer Blonde is consisted of 4 short stories written by Adrian Tomine for the Optic Nerve comics. While I still haven't read all of his work yet, I think these stories couldn't fit better together in a collection.

Hawaiian Getaway - A single mid twenties something Asian-American female gets fired from her job, loses her roommate and slowly starts to lose herself in this story. We see how she spends her days, avoiding her nagging mother's phone calls and how she attempts to make connections with others.

Alter Ego - A 26 year old straight-white-male writer starts becoming complacent with his life, his girlfriend and his career, and goes searching for the writer of a piece of fan mail he has received. He ends up meeting the fan's younger sister, a high school girl. The man starts to spend more and more time with this high school girl, creating an alternate life for himself with her. He ends up cheating on his girlfriend with her, she finds out and leaves him.

Summer Blonde - We meet a mid-twenties straight-white-single-male with a classic desk job and learn that he has been stalking a young blonde girl that works at a card shop downtown. We learn about the blonde girl's secret dual romance though the eyes of this main character and that he is creepy and blah blah blah.

Bomb Scare - This was the story that I thought was the most powerful. A young high school boy and his best friend are picked on at school because they are each other's only friend, everyone thinks they are gay. A popular girl at school becomes an outcast because of an experience at a drinking party. The two misfits become friends, la la la. 

None of these stories are exciting or dramatic, but captivating because they are all so believable. Each character is so relate-able, because they seem like real people, but because of that I don't find myself LIKING these characters, because Tomine makes them both charming and disgusting at the same time. You see reflections of yourself, or your ex or your neighbor or an uncomfortable stranger, and you know these people so well, that you can't possibly like them, but you also don't dislike them because you understand that they are flawed. It's wild how well this all happens in these short stories. I think another reason why they work so well is that there really isn't any development in the characters. It's as if we're just opening up a window and peeking in on them, starting right there and we learn about who they are from that small moment. He doesn't give us any more to go off than we would have if we really were eavesdropping in on their life. And sometimes the stories are over before we come to any sort of conclusion or balanced ending. Which is frustrating sometimes and disappointing, realistic and natural.

32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics

I am currently on a quest to read every single thing that we have in the shop by Adrian Tomine. Had a bit of a Rhye/Beach House moment, where I identified Adrian as a woman and then was shocked to find out that the writer behind the stories (or the singer behind the songs) was actually male! Additionally though, I also really like the writing style, the gentle storytelling, the quiet illustrations so much that I want to read through everything we have because A. its really good B. the internet says that there is an overlap between the single issue comics Optic Nerve, and his short stories. Somostly if someone has already read Summer Blonde, or maybe some single issues of Optic Nerve, but they want more, which book do I suggest them because is everything actually connected or what.


Looking it up online...

(Taken from Wiki) Optic Nerve is the ongoing series of comics by Tomine that were originally self-published and are currently published by Drawn and Quarterly. Originally, the self-published comics were in "mini-comic" format, consisting of seven issues (most of them later republished in 32 Stories). After Drawn and Quarterly became the publisher, the comics were published at standard size, and the issue numbering was restarted, making the first Drawn & Quarterly published issue to be numbered #1. These comics range from a few pages per story to the 32-page standard in later issues. Issues 1-4 included several stories each and were collected in Sleepwalk and Other Stories, and issues 5-8 included one story each and were collected in Summer Blonde. Issues 9-11 were compiled into a graphic novel titled Shortcomings, released in September 2007

I have read a few single issues of Optic Nerve that we have in the shop, which would be the reissued numbered comics, but when reading through this collection, 32 stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics, didn't come across any duplicates that I'd already read before. SO THE QUEST CONTINUES.

These stories were all really awesome, and the drawing style is a lot more loose than the later stuff that I've read. Some of the stories are super short, but even though some are only a page long, just a few single panels, it still is a really fun way of getting to know certain characters. Its hard to believe that Adrian drew some of these while in high school, and never showed anyone. High school. Crazy to think about. Really beautiful work. 

Heads or Tails -- Graphic Novel

 


Heads or Tails is a collection of short stories by Lilli Carré. A super great collection of thoughtful and contemplative narration about every day life. There are little quirky dream-like notions in some of the stories that make them seem like bedtime stories, she's got a great way of making plain stories about mundane life a little more fantastic by gently exaggerating the relationship between the characters inner dialogue and their perception of reality.

There was one story in particular that I've added a few pages from, called "Rainbow Moment", a beautifully written short about 6 different stories woven together. A man is sitting at the bar with his friend, telling a story of how his wife was having a rough day, the colors shift and you're in that story, then during that story the wife explains while she is having an off day, so her story begins and the colors shift a third time. Throughout "Rainbow Moment", this happens a total of 5 times, so there are 6 different characters you're introducted to, with 6 different colors attached to them, each having a bit of a Rainbow Moment themselves.

This particular story, as well as Lilli Carré's others and illustration style in general, make me feel really nostalgic, and I found myself appreciating this story so much. I guess I didn't realize it but I was having a "Rainbow Moment" too.

She was sitting there with an odd expression on her face, like she wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
- My parents used to call that a "rainbow moment". Like you're feeling both rain and sunshine at the same time and are caught somewhere between the two.

Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life -- Graphic Novel

Recently translated into English, this graphic novel tells the story of a young Ulli Lust; a 17 year old who is looking for adventure. Ulli and a new friend decide to travel together to Spain for the winter to experience a new city, see the sea and meet interesting people along the way.

I found myself feeling really sorry for Ulli, and getting really angry for her, because of how much trouble she was finding in her travels, all from men. It is frustrating for a woman who wants to see life, and experience something for themselves alone, but isn't able to do so in peace because of their gender. Ulli is constantly getting confronted by strange men in these different cities, claiming to be courteous and generous, giving her money for her travels, letting her rest in their spare rooms, but then expecting sex because of their "kindness" towards her. "I was nice to you, couldn't you be a little nice to me", says one of the creatures that she is pressured to pleasure in a back alley after she has been gifted a meal.

It is wild to me that someone as young as 17 was able to think with such clarity as to the treatment that was happening towards her. There were a lot of times where you could understand that she really was still just a young girl who was tired from her travels and after an incident was beating herself up for not seeing it beforehand, but through the story, you can see her really struggling with this reality that she has found herself in.

After reading this story I am touched by Ulli's courage and inspired by her sense of adventure and, like many days, disgusted with men and the leniency of sexism in this world !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still a very good read and also super important.

Promethea -- Volume 1

This story follows a college aged girl, Sophie Bangs who is writing a paper about Promethea, a character who has shown up in various stories throughout history without the multiple authors being aware of the similarities between the characters they created on their own.

Sophie is intrigued by these connections and thinks that there has to be more than just coincidence with the reoccurence of Promethea, and gets in way over her head when she starts to get wrapped up in the story.

The story itself is set in 'futuristic' 1999 New York City, which is cool. Everything is very punk rock and neon. Even though it was actually written from 1999 to 2005, it reads as slightly outdated. It feels like it was written further back than that, thinking about how crazy and futuristic the early 2000s would be.

I think the idea behind this story is interesting, Sophie Bangs and Promethea are two really strong, well written characters, but there is something that makes me feel like I can't get into it as much as I could. I think it is probably the artwork. There is a lot of fantasy going on in this story, but there are a lot of scenes where fantasy and reality are meeting together and getting blurry. There isn't really a blur though, it seems too rigid and structured, visually speaking. I'm looking for more Dali and less Winsor McCay. Need more chaos to get down with this story that is entirely based around imagination and the limits of your own mind.

Further Readings

Batman Eternal - Up to Issue 44 out of 44, caught up and now have to wait a week like everybody else. A week isn't so bad though. Its a good amount of time. Although I would prefer zero days. But whatever. This story is still cooking.

Squirrel Girl - #2 just came out this week and IT - IS - SO - GOOD. I want to get everyone I know a copy of issue 1 of squirrel girl because find me someone on this planet that wouldn't like this story. That person is a giant boring lame-o. Squirrel Girl is 100% likeable, funny, charming, awesome, posi, cool. All around a most excellent read.

Ant-Man -- #2 also came out this week and I'm still charmed by Scott Lang. Just one of those characters you root for even though if you knew him in real life you would probably be super annoyed at him all the time and think 'dude. get yourself TOGETHER MAN'. The art is really awesome, I like the scenes where he is changing size and you can see the progression of his body getting smaller. This issue hints that one of the older women characters might also be a superhero or something like that, I wonder if they'll expand on that further I'm super curious who she is supposed to be. I could also google that and get the answer immediately, so.....

Alex + Ada -- now on issue #8, but waiting on a copy because we are out at the store. !!!! Playing a waiting came. I am really interested in this story line, the concept of humans and AI on almost the same level. As much as I don't want to be a part of that in real life, I think its a really interesting concept to consider. Bummed that the story is coming to an end soon!

Letter 44 -- On issue #11 right now, also waiting for a copy of the next issue. Letter 44 is really rad. I still really like this story. Just want to read more!