*Preorder* Felicia Chiao - "Giant Robot Cover" Art Print (Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture)
Signed art print by Felicia Chiao. Piece is unframed.
This is an open edition.
Artwork measures 12 x 18 inches.
Please note this is a preorder - prints will likely ship out sometime within November 2024, though a more specific time frame will be provided as soon as we are able to!
This piece was made by Felicia Chiao for the cover of Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture.
Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture (Hardcover)
Hardcover, 464 pages, measures 8.3 x 11 inches, full color.
Each copy comes with a signed bookplate by Eric Nakamura!
Books can be purchased in person at GR2 on 10/19 and will be available again in store the following week (starting October 22nd).
For those who ordered during preorder phase: Books will ship out late October, early November 2024, with signatures from Eric Nakamura, Martin Wong, James Jean, Luke Chueh, Daniel Wu, Felicia Chiao, David Horvath, maybe more! The official release date is October 22nd.
In person book events are scheduled in Los Angeles, Northern California Bay Area, Philadelphia, New York and maybe more?! For more information click here!
In conjunction with the great Drawn & Quarterly, we present Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture, a hardcover curated collection of Giant Robot's best! Jam packed with so many great articles written by + interviews conducted by the passionate and creative Giant Robot contributors throughout the years. A beautiful hardcopy encapsulation of an era that lives on today!
Description from Drawn & Quarterly:
Celebrating the pop culture phenomenon that redefined what it meant to be Asian-American with tributes from Margaret Cho, Randall Park, Jia Tolentino, and more.
Los Angeles, 1994. Two Asian-American punk rockers staple together the zine of their dreams featuring Sumo, Hong Kong Cinema and Osamu Tezuka. From the very margins of the DIY press and alternative culture, Giant Robot burst into the mainstream with over 60,000 copies in circulation annually at its peak. Giant Robot even popped right off the page, setting up a restaurant, gallery, and storefronts in LA, as well as galleries and stores in New York and San Francisco. As their influence grew in the 90s and 00s, Giant Robot was eventually invited to the White House by Barack Obama, to speak at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and to curate the GR Biennale at the Japanese American National Museum.Home to a host of unapologetically authentic perspectives bridging the bicultural gap between Asian and Asian-American pop culture, GR had the audacity to print such topics side-by-side, and become a touchstone for generations of artists, musicians, creators, and collectors of all kinds in a pre-social media era. Nowhere else were pieces on civil rights activists running next to articles on skateboarding and Sriracha. Toy collectors, cartoonists, and street style pioneers got as many column inches as Michelle Yeoh, Karen O, James Jean, and Haruki Murakami.
Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture features the best of the magazine’s sixty-eight issue run alongside never-before-seen photographs, supplementary writing by long-term contributing journalist Claudine Ko, and tributes from now-famous fans who’ve been around since day one. Margaret Cho, Daniel Wu, and Randall Park celebrate Giant Robot’s enduring legacy alongside pioneering pro-skateboarder Peggy Oki, contemporary art giant Takashi Murakami, culinary darling Natasha Pickowicz, and critically acclaimed essayist Jia Tolentino.
Adrian Tomine - Q & A (Softcover)
Softcover, 168 pages, Measures 5" x 7.1"
Everything you wanted to know about storytelling or Adrian Tomine but were too afraid to ask
“That would’ve been too easy and spontaneous for me, and I had to find a way to make everything more complicated.”
And yet for over thirty years, bestselling author, screenwriter, and New Yorker cover artist Adrian Tomine’s work has set the standard for contemporary storytelling. With Tomine, his readership has grown from the dedicated following of his comic-book series Optic Nerve to include a wider but still engaged, opinionated, and ever-inquiring public. And now, for the first time in print, Tomine responds to his readers directly, tackling their questions and comments with generosity, humor, and vulnerability.
Q&A is one part personal history, one part masterclass in crafting quality entertainment. With questions pulled from his time at the Substack Writers’ Residency, and with additional, new material, Q&A is an indispensable addition to the collections of eagle-eyed fans and aspiring artists, writers, and cartoonists alike.
Tomine answers questions about his preferred tools, his creative process, the ups and downs of adaptation, and perhaps most importantly—how to pronounce his last name. Illustrated with drafts, outtakes, and photos from the artist’s personal collection, this rare peek into the mind of a contemporary cartooning giant lays out the method to his meticulous brand of madness. The artist looks back on his career in response to queries from his—maybe adoring but mostly curious—public with his signature dry wit and unflinching, self-deprecating honesty.
Adrian Tomine - Scenes from an Impending Marriage
Hardcover, 56 pages, measures 5.4 x 6.6 inches, black and white comic.
MAKING LIGHT OF NUPTIAL NARCISSM
At the behest of his soon-to-be wife, Adrian Tomine set out to create a wedding favor for their guests that would be funnier and more personal than the typical chocolate bars and picture frames. What started out as a simple illustrated card soon grew into a full-fledged comic book: a collection of short strips chronicling the often absurd process of getting married. A loose, cartoony departure from Tomine's previous work,Scenes from an Impending Marriage is a sweet-natured, laugh out-loud skewering of the modern marriage process, including hiring a DJ, location scouting, trips to the salon, suit fittings, dance lessons, registering for gifts, and managing familial demands. The most personal and autobiographical work of Tomine's career,Scenes from an Impending Marriageis a charming, delightful token of love.
Adrian Tomine - Shortcomings (Softcover)
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve - Summer Blonde
Softcover, 132pp, measures 7.6 x 10.3 inches.
Reading just a page of this Optic Nerve collection will improve your life considerably. But don't stop there; curl up on a rainy day and read the whole thing, twice.
From Drawn & Quarterly: Adrian Tomine's cult comix series Optic Nerve is finally collected into one sharp-looking hardcover graphic novel. Described as the Raymond Carver of comix, Tomine constructs tales of emotional disconnection with an ear for painfully real dialogue. Combined with his deft black and white depictions of urbane lifestyles, Tomine's fans have often accused him of eavesdropping in on their most intimate moments and, with forensic skill, laying their lives bare. The conflicts between emotional gratification, narcissistic neediness and moral discernment mark the title story - "Summer Blonde" - in which a socially crippled man nurses an obsessive crush on a young woman. He watches close up, paralyzed by his guilt, as her beauty catches the eye of his neighbor: a hip, selfish young man with a short attention span. One of Optic Nerve's most popular stories, `Hawaiian Getaway,` features Hilary, telephone service rep who is having the worst week of her life. She lost her job, her apartment, and her grandmother. Close to the edge, she is losing her grip. Reaching out to random strangers on the phone, Hilary is looking for someone to help her. In "Alter Ego" a successful young author has writer`s block. He can`t, or won`t, decide between another ghostwriting gig and finishing his second ‘real' novel. He stalls on committing to his novel and his girlfriend when a chance postcard leads him to flirt with fantasies of changing the past. Finally, "Bomb Scare" documents the early unease of his generation by setting this coming-of-age story during the tense months of the Gulf War, the event that ushered in the 1990s.
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve: Sleepwalk and Other Stories
Adrian Tomine - Scrapbook: Uncollected Work 1990-2004
Softcover, 8.5" x 12", 208 pages, Color and Black & White
Comics, illustrations (including album covers!), sketches, and notes explaining it all. Adrian Tomine is one of our heroes, and probably one of your favorite band's heroes. This collection is kind of like "Prehistory of the Far Side" for Optic Nerve. It is absolutely essential.
The ultimate collection by one of the most recognized talents in graphic novels: includes over a decade of comics and illustrations by the still-under-30 Adrian Tomine, from Pulse to The New Yorker and Esquire, collected together for the first time in one sharply-designed book.
Scrapbook is the first comprehensive Adrian Tomnie collection. here you'll find the complete run of strips which was originally published in Tower Records' Pulse Magazine which Adrian started when he was only 17, along with comics originally published in Details and a host of other magazines of the past decade. A large section of Scrapbook is dedicated to Tomine's extensive illustration and design work, featuring his best material over the years from virtually every major publication in America including The New Yorker, Details, Esquire, and the late JFK Jr.-edited George. Tomines' art has also graced popular album covers and posters for bands such as The Eels and Weezer and posters and its' all included here in this beautifully packaged book.
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve #02
Softcover, 24 pages. Measures
6.8 x 10.3 inches.
Tomine offers four stories in this second issue: A lonely woman tries to find the man leaving cryptic messages for her in the Personals section of the newspaper in "The Connecting Thread" (4 pages); in "Summer Job" (15 pages), a teenager reluctantly applies for a job at a photocopy shop and then proceeds to waste the following two months; "Pink Frosting" (2 pages) provides a vivid and unsettling glimpse at the suggestion of violence murmuring beneath the surface during a traffic altercation; in "Layover" (4 pages), a missed flight forces a man to ponder his strained relationships with his lover and friends as he discreetly walks through his neighborhood waiting, afraid to announce to anyone that he has not left yet. 24 pages. First Printing: November 1995; Second Printing: February 1997. Third Printing: October 2001.
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve #03
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve #04
Paperback, 10" x 6.8", 24 pages.
The critically acclaimed graphic comic Optic Nerve from artist Adrian Tomine. Three stories are featured here: in “Six Day Cold” (11 pages), a man spends a tense, awkward evening with his ex-girlfriend after she comes over to his apartment to help nurse his sickness; “Fourth of July” (7 pages) recounts the story of a young boy who isolates himself as his parents are being separated; in “Hazel Eyes” (6 pages), a young woman tries to recreate her life after she realizes she has nothing in common with her friends.
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve #05
Paperback, 10" x 6.8", 25 pages.
The critically acclaimed graphic comic Optic Nerve from artist Adrian Tomine. Adrian Tomine’s first full-length story is featured here. In “Alter Ago” (25 pages), a successful young writer becomes obsessed with finding the girl he had a crush on in high school; things become more complicated when he has to hide his strange obsession from his current girlfriend.
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve #06
Paperback, 10" x 6.8", 25pp
The critically acclaimed graphic comic Optic Nerve from artist Adrian Tomine. With eight bonus pages, this extra-long issue features “Hawaiian Getaway”, a single story comprised of thirteen chapters. Inventive in structure, the story details the events in a woman’s life as circumstances turn her previously complacent existence upside-down, and her behavior grows more eccentric and erratic.
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve #07
Paperback, 10" x 6.8", 25pp
The critically acclaimed graphic comic Optic Nerve from artist Adrian Tomine. At the center of the story is Nessa, a beautiful young woman who finds herself besieged by the attention of three obsessive, lustful men. This complex “misanthropic soap opera” is told without narration, cutting back and forth between several concurrent plots that ultimately converge in a compelling conclusion.
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve #09
Paperback, 10" x 7", 25pp
The critically acclaimed graphic comic Optic Nerve from artist Adrian Tomine. After a lengthy period of writing and planning, Tomine returns with his longest, most ambitious work to date. With a projected length of over one hundred pages, this fictional story examines the troubled sex-life of a confused, obsessive, Japanese-American male in his late twenties, and his cross-country search for the perfect girl. This issue is the first of three chapters.
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve #11
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve #13
Softcover, 40 pages, measures 10 x 6.8 inches.
Publisher Drawn & Quarterly explains, "Acclaimed cartoonist Adrian Tomine (New York Drawings, Shortcomings) returns with a dazzling new issue of his two-decade-long comic book series! Optic Nerve #13 features three complete stories, each distinct in their tone and visual style. "Go Owls" is a dark comedy about 12-step programs, drug dealing, and minor league baseball. "Translated, from the Japanese," illustrates the diary of a young Japanese mother, caught between two countries and hovering on the precipice of divorce. "Winter, 2012" is an autobiographical glimpse into Tomine's home life and his ongoing struggles with the modern world. Throughout Optic Nerve #13, Tomine channels contemporary zeitgeist and vernacular to produce flawlessly designed, compellingly readable stories."
Adrian Tomine - Optic Nerve #14
Softcover, 40 pages, measures 10 x 6.8 inches.
Publisher Drawn & Quarterly explains, "Optic Nerve 14 brings Adrian Tomine’s multifaceted, expressive cartooning to a new peak with two stories and a bonus autobiographical strip. “Killing and Dying” is about a father’s struggles to be supportive: it centers on parenthood, mortality, and stand-up comedy. “Intruders” depicts a man obsessively trying to find his way back to a former life by revisiting places he once knew. Optic Nerve 14 will appear on the twentieth anniversary of Tomine’s beloved comic book series, in whose pages the landmark graphic novel Shortcomings was first published. Each story in Optic Nerve 14 reveals new dimensions to Tomine’s unique visual sensibility and complex, character-driven stories."
Moomin Adventures: Book One
Softcover, 312 pages, black and white. Measures 8.4 x 6 inches.
The classic comic strip by Tove Jansson and Lars Jansson in a new paperback series
Presented in an all new softcover format that collects the all ages comics of both Tove Jansson and Lars Jansson, the five-volume Moomin Adventures series will introduce the timeless comic strip to a new generation of readers of all ages. The strip’s gentle humor and subtle yet sharp musings on life relay an utterly human existence through the lives of Moomin, Moominmamma, Moominpappa, Snufkin, Little My, Snork Maiden and more.
Moomin Adventures: Book One kicks off with perhaps the most famous adventure of them all, Moomin on the Riviera, which was adapted into an animated feature and debuted at the London Film Festival. In Moomin’s Desert Island, the entire Moomin family is stranded on a desert island—the very island their ancestors came from. The Moominvalley hijinx continued with a charming mix of strips from Finland’s most famous writer/artist Tove Jansson, and her brother Lars Jansson who taught himself how to draw in order to take over the strip when it was in syndication.
Nori by Rumi Hara
A DULCET DEBUT CAPTURING A TOUCHING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SPIRITED NORI AND HER GRANDMA
Ignatz nominated and MoCCA Arts Festival Award-winning cartoonist Rumi Hara invites you to visit her magical world. Nori (short for Noriko) is a spirited three-year-old girl who lives with her parents and grandmother in the suburbs of Osaka during the 1980s. While both parents work full-time, her grandmother is Nori’s caregiver and companion—forever following after Nori as the three year old dashes off on fantastical adventures.
One day Nori runs off to be met by an army of bats—the symbol of happiness. Soon after, she is at school chasing a missing rabbit while performing as a moon in the school play, touching on the myth of the Moon Rabbit. A ditch by the side of the road opens a world of kids, crawfish, and beetles, not to mention the golden frog and albino salamander. That night, her grandma takes to the Bon Odori festival to dance with her ancestors. When Nori wins a trip to Hawaii, she finds herself swimming with a sea turtle, though she doesn’t know how to swim.
In mesmerizing short stories of black and white artwork with alternating spot color, Hara draws on East Asian folklore and Japanese culture to create an enchanting milieu that Nori tries to make sense of, wrestling between the reality of what she sees and the legends her grandma shares with her.