http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1344993...

A collection of four short graphic stories, each centred around a social misfit and showimg him or her both as they see themselves and as they are seen by others, with sometimes brutal clarity. Tomine's ability to depict multiple viewpoints is pretty amazing. Few of his characters are particularly likeable but they are all fascinating. ( )

Affecting stories worthy of reading by those into contemporary fiction. Even though it's, y'know, words and pictures. ( )

Much like Short Comings in style and general story arc but split up into four vignettes. The flap on the jacket is accurate. Mr. Tomine does have a knack for drawing all sorts of facial expressions, but particularly annoyed ones. These stories did remind me of certian people I have known in my life. People that I haven't thought about in a long time. Very subtle characterizations that I have never been able to put my finger on came to life again in some of these stories.

I enjoyed story "Bomb Scare", regarding the young man who is picked on in school and mocked for exclusively haning out with just one other boy. I drew many similiarities to my own personal 6th grade expereince. The young man's willingness to sell out his friend in hopes of just a chance at increasing his stature with a more popular girl. Hit it right on the mark for me. Reading it today in 2009 in the midst of the second Iraq war, I also found an odd convergence in the way the first gulf war is portrayed. It took the C and C music factory cassette to make me realize we were back in 1991, not 2003.

Overall, a fine group of stories with impressive artwork that brings out the subtle machinations of the character's psychology. ( )

Adrian Tomine's trade paperback Summer Blonde collects issues five through eight of his comic book Optic Nerve, including some of his best stories. Highlights include the titular story and "Bomb Scare," which could easily be one of the most painfully accurate depictions of being a teen there ever was. ( )

Once I started Summer Blonde, I couldn't put it down. It definitely struck a chord with me. Summer Blonde is actually a collection of 4 short stories told in a graphic novel format. For me, it was basically about lonely people reaching out for human contact in sometimes strange ways. It made me very thankful that I have a few people in my life that I feel like really "get" me, and what a great feeling it is to have that. I identified with the story that pondered "how does one go about making small talk?" maybe a little more than I'd like. Many of the characters in Summer Blonde seem to be looking for someone to fulfill them, but don't seem to know where to begin. I loved the ambiguity inherent in many of the stories. For example, in "Hawaiian Getaway," Hillary Chan has a remarkably hard time with people- she seems to crave them and hate them at the same time. Toward the end, she meets a man who she seems to click with, but it's left up in the air whether he was a "castle in the air" using her for sex or if he's just running late to meet her. Many of the stories have a hesitant touch of almost-hope at the end.

From the book jacket, I learned that the merit of Tomine's work has been hotly debated. From what I can gather, many of his characters tend to be hipster emo types who bewail lack of meaningful connection with others in their lives. I thought their connections were deeper than that though. I thought Dan Raeburn, who wrote the introduction on the book jacket, summed it up well when discussing the similarity between many of the characters- they are all seeking human connection in an increasingly alienating world. These stories were much more about creating emotion than sparking intellectual thought for me. And I need to create a new word to describe what these stories made me feel. Aching-sympathetic-identification with a touch of thankfulness? That's not quite it, but I think maybe the best I'm going to be able to do. ( )