I was back at the library again Tuesday, this time filling out a job application. I figured I like books, I like the library despire the heat, and it’s not far from my home, so why not. While trying to remember how one of my internships is described on my resume, my eyes wandered, daydream-like, onto the cover of the latest The New Yorker. Tilting my head, I put down my pen and brought the issue closer.
There was something about that cover. How engrossed she is in her book, while everyone is embracing the famous sites around them. Her dark clothing against the bright colors. Is she a tourist? Why is she on that bus in the first place?
I actually found myself thinking, “I wish I was this cool.” I know when I visited New York, around that age, I took photographs everywhere. Looking at this makes me realize how stupid it was. They’re just buildings, made of the same materials as the ones back home. That cover made me think more than any piece of art I’ve seen in a long time.
I thought the artist was Daniel Clowes, because it’s very much his style, but it’s actually Adrian Tomine, a friend of Clowes. After reading more about him, I’m really tempted to pick up his comic books, Optic Nerve. The only comic book I’ve ever read was Ghost World, by Clowes, which was complied into a graphic novel, the form I read it in. I completely love it, even more so than the movie. The characters are bitingly sarcastic, very teenage, but there is something really vulnerable about them, espeically the protagonist Enid. The vulnerablity in the film doesn’t have quite the same feel as when I read it, but still a good movie. Anyways, reading about Optic Nerve reminded me a lot of Ghost World, funny and real. I never read any comic books after that because none really interested me, and well, I just didn’t consider anything with pictures worth my time. I was an English major, I could handle words. Very snobby of me, I know, but after reading some of Whitney Matheson’s comic book raves, I’m coming around to them.
This is a whole new breed of nerdiness, by the way. It’s one thing to drop Star Wars and Freaks and Geeks references in my blog, to profess my love for Jeopardy and NPR. Comic books? Well, I guess after taking pictures of my local library, it was only time.
1 Comment
June 14, 2007 at 9:53 pm
That cover is engrossing. It’s like she’s cool enough to be in New York, but even cooler than an average visitor, because she puts herself above the hype.
Or, she’s not even a tourist at all, but someone who just like to ride the buses? I doubt that. But it’s still a good cover.