Adrian Tomine Interview with Randall Park: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist

[felicityhaircut]

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Graphic novelist, Adrian Tomine, did an interview with Randall Park for Powell's Books to promote his new book, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist.

Warning: Don't watch this if you haven't read the book yet! Randall's a good interviewer but he gave away a bunch of the stories, much to OP's disappointment.

• Adrian talks about in-person

Comments

[corruptionoflol]

i loved loved Optic Nerve so much in college. p sure i gave my paperback of 32 stories to my ex who never read it.. i'll have to rebuy that one day but i still have most of the back issues at least. and i guess i should buy this new book ..

i liked "epileptic" a recommendation. kind of strange, autobiographical
also "this will all end in tears" (i think that's the name?) collection of short stories
clearly i haven't read comics in years from this though. lol

[felicityhaircut]

Ooh "This Will All End in Tears" looks promising, thanks for the rec!

I got into Optic Nerve kind of late and bought as many back issues as I could, but I think they're now rotting away in my mom's basement so I should prob check to see if they're salvageable at this point, oops.

[corruptionoflol]

if you have any not totally rotted and you want to sell them after you read them lmk!

[felicityhaircut]

Will do! Iirc I don’t have anything super old tho.

[felicityhaircut]

to cry your way through life a novel

That sounds like me, I will check it out! I've seen some of Chris Ware's stuff and I love his style, but I've never read anything of his. Adding to my list, thank you!

[the4thjuliek]

I did a module on graphic novels for my Master's and it was one of the best classes I've ever taken. We read a mix of the classics like Maus, Watchmen, Persepolis, Ghost World, Chris Ware's Building Stories, etc.

Nick Drnaso's Sabrina is fantastic! And Richard McGuire's Here is also really great, especially if you're into more artsy stuff (his IG is also worth following imo). I also finally read In the Shadow of No Towers but it wasn't as gripping as Maus.

[felicityhaircut]

Whoa that sounds so cool! What did you get your masters in??

Noting your recs, thank you!

[the4thjuliek]

I did it in English literature! But I studied in the UK so it was more of literatures in English rather than Anglo-American literature. Which meant that I could essentially take any class I wanted from the department - from graphic novels to 19th century Russian literature.

Not to get all nerdy but one of my pet projects, if I end up getting a PhD, is to study the representation of female domesticity in graphic novels in the bande-dessinée lol

[ddaydreamnation]

killing & dying was so good! it's such a beautiful book.

[felicityhaircut]

They really did a good job with the look and feel of that book! I’ll never be a minimalist bc I’m a sucker for stuff like that.

[ddaydreamnation]

truly! the colour palette *heart eyes*

[djbbgoose]

i'm trying to ease back into reading with graphic novels and i used to really like his and daniel clowes stuff, anyone have any recs for fairly gentle reads? nothing too heavy

[felicityhaircut]

I think Adrian’s newest one isn’t too heavy! There are definitely some funny bits and also some stories that are touching without being depressing (imo).

I also really like Dan Clowes but all of his stuff skews more sad to me.