452 OPTIC NERVE
the most acclaimed Batman storylines, including Th e Dark Knight Returns , A Death
in the Family , Knightfall , and No Man’s Land.
Selected Bibliography: O’Neil, Denny. “Interview.” (December 3, 2007). Around
Comics, http://www.aroundcomics.com/; O’Neil, Denny. “Interview.” (December 10,
7007). Around Comics , http://www.aroundcomics.com/.
Jason S. Todd
OPTIC NERVE is an ongoing comics series created by Adrian Tomine in 1991, while he was
midway through high school in Sacramento, CA. Originally published as a mini-comic
three pages long and with a paltry print run of 25 copies, the series is now one of Canadian
publisher Drawn & Quarterly’s best-known series. Th e fi rst seven issues, consisting of a
combination of semi-autobiographical stories alongside fi ctional stories, were all printed as
mini-comics of ever-increasing length closer and closer to the industry-standard 32 pages.
As mini-comics with very limited print runs, they quickly sold out, while Tomine became
increasingly well-known. He began a comic strip for Pulse! for Tower Records the follow-
ing year, which brought more attention to his mini-comics work.
In 1994, when he was just 20, Drawn and Quarterly picked up Optic Nerve and
began major publication and distribution of the series. It became extremely popular;
as a result, Tomine and his series garnered a great deal of attention, though not all of
it was positive. For example, the letters pages of his issues often include at least one
letter where Tomine’s readers take him to task for a variety of things, including his
visual similarity to other comics artists (most notably Daniel Clowes , whom Tomine
acknowledges as one of his major infl uences). Others cite his sad characters as being
too entrenched in pop culture, too aff ected, of being too “emo” or “hipster” in his por-
trayals of them. Much of the work was informed by those around him, with a decidedly
autobiographical aspect to the dialogue and characters.
However, despite this fan feedback, Optic Nerve gained momentum and widespread
critical acclaim with the nomination of the series for a “Best New Series” Harvey Award
and Tomine’s win of a Harvey Award for “Best New Talent” in 1995. In this same year,
the fi rst seven issues of the series, long out of print in the original mini-comic format,
were collected in 32 Stories. Th is title has proved so popular that Drawn & Quarterly
re-issued the series as a new boxed set in April 2009 with redesigned packaging and
promotion, recognizing nearly two decades of work.
In 1997, the fi rst four issues of Optic Nerve produced for Drawn & Quarterly were
reprinted as Sleepwalk and Other Stories , one of Drawn & Quarterly’s best-selling col-
lections. Tomine continued work (along with fi nishing a degree in English from the
University of California at Berkeley) on the series, publishing the second Optic Nerve
collection, the critically acclaimed Summer Blonde , in 2002. Reprinting issues #5
through #8 of the series, Summer Blonde particularly showcases Tomine’s skill at captur-
ing various characters through dialogue so true to life that it feels almost like you are
eavesdropping on their conversations.
