Killing and Dying
[Montreal]: Drawn & Quarterly, 2015. Single volume, measuring 9.25 x 6.25 inches: 121, [3]. Original color pictorial boards, original printed mylar dust jacket, color pictorial endpapers. Illustrated in color throughout text. Signed by Adrian Tomine on the half-title.
First edition of this collection of six stories by graphic novelist Adrian Tomine, originally published in Optic Nerve. Dealing with complicated experiences of marriage, separation, and parenthood, the emotional weight of the material is the more powerful for Tomine’s precise draughtsmanship, which conveys the exact decrepitude of a rental apartment, the subtle details of cancer treatment. The more fluid graphic style in the final story, “Intruders,” is a homage to pioneering Japanese manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi (1935-2015), to whom it is dedicated. Tatsumi’s closely observed gekiga, “dramatic pictures,” produced during the 1960s and 1970s, were a major influence on Tomine’s work. A fine copy, signed by Adrian Tomine.
Price: $100.00