Scrapbook: Uncollected Work, 1990-2004

"Scrapbook" is just that, a mix of comic strips, commercial artwork, and sketches from his notebooks. Some of the comic strips remind me of the 32 Stories book where Tomine's early 90s work is scratchy and largely amateurish compared to his standards today. That said they show a master of the medium learning the ropes, seeing what works and what doesn't. The stories vary from 6 panel short stories to 24 panels. One of them shows a couple breaking up in parallel to their favourite band "Crabwalk" breaking up. Later on, Tomine redoes the same strip, almost panel for panel, except with the knowledge that it is now based on a real life relationship of his and he changes the band to the Pixies who had broken up at that time. It's interesting as it shows the confidence Tomine's gotten in the 2nd strip to the 1st, and also because I like the Pixies.The design work is wonderful, ranging from CD album artwork for bands like Weezer and Eels (his drawing of E is magnificent), to adverts for Coca-Cola, posters for local events, promos for Drawn & Quarterly. It all shows Tomine's range and some are so good I wish I had them as posters to put up. The sketches too are excellent and show how a comics artist creates his strips in utero. Very cool stuff.Fascinating book, great artwork, just don't expect a graphic novel like "Shortcomings" and think more along the lines of "32 Stories" with extras. Good stuff.

This book can serve as either an introduction to Tomine's work or to fill in the gaps for his dedicated readers, of which I am the latter. From the perspective of examining his art work, as an artist myself who has admired and sometimes felt intimidated by his hyper-clean drawing drawing and coloring style, and his achingly perfect depictions of young women, it was very compelling to see how much experimentation he did with heavy inking styles and harsh figures before somehow making the leap in a year or two long period to his current style. It's also revealed that indeed he does copy from fashion catalogues as well as drawing from life, though his work from nude models is less masterful. Finally, a collection of published illustrations from various major magazines and record companies cement his reputation as one of the most striking, poignant and relevent cartoonists of his time. I would have given this book five stars were it not for the fact that it simply does not contain any of the comic work of his that is truly wonderful, and of course this is because all of those pieces have already been collected elsewhere.

I've been an avid reader of Adrian's stuff for years and purchased this collection a few weeks ago. It is quite interesting to see how his artwork/storylines have changed over the tears, as well as see some items that I've never even heard of (album cover and magazine pieces, for example). I think the 32 stories collection is better if you wanted an intro collection, but I think this is quite worthwhile.Adrian is one of the best, most poignant if that is the best word, storyteller and artists around today.

I should say up front that I am very biased in favor of Tomine; he is one of my favorite modern comic artists, and in my opinion one of the very best. But when I saw the title "Scrapbook," I was hesitant; I usually avoid such books from even some of my absolute favorite artists, because most consists of drawings and art only - there is typically very little to "read," if that makes sense - without getting a long rant about the various functions of comics. However, I was pleasantly suprised to find that this contains a lot of work with text; it is a book you can "read" just as much as you "look," and it just goes to show how artists like Tomine are revolutionizing terms like "comics," "literature," and even "text." It shows that he isn't just an artist that employs text, nor a writer who can draw - he is a comic artist, meaning he creates moments, stories, and ideas into the one comic medium, which consists of both text and art. If you have never read his title Optic Nerve, get that first (collected under the titles Sleepwalk And Other Stories, and Summer Blonde); however, if you've already read those and are hungry for more while anxiously awaiting the next issue of Optic Nerve (which is usually a year or more between issues), then it will be worth it, I promise.

Great collection of stuff. It displays the diffrent types of his work from the serious comics, the cartoony stuff, posters ect...a fan of his art work would be pleased. The color and line of his work is as beautiful as ever.....and the black and white stuff...bla bla