Synopsis
While still an undergrad at UC Berkeley, Adrian Tomine made an early mark with his comic series Optic Nerve. I reviewed 32 Stories, which compiles his early minicomics, in the process charting both his artistic growth and his shift from dialogue-heavy scenes to the subtle silences that defined his later tone. “You see a keen, expanding intelligence at work,” I wrote, because the collection reveals how seriously he already took the form, and his development within it.
