The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist and The Contradictions spotlit in The Quietus’s November list

Adrian Tomine’s The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Cartoonist is a book that exists, in part, to make quite clear that the lot of a cartoonist is ignominy and disappointment. He begins in 1982 with humiliation at a new school as he reveals the scale of his obsession with comics to his new classmates. This does not go well. From here he jumps forward 13 years to San Diego Comic Con, by which time he is starting to be well known. His expectation is that, here at last, things will be better than school. No physical harm befalls him but being among "his people" turns out not to be what he dreamed of as he is accused of being a Daniel Clowes impersonator, and the next year is arguably worse when Frank Miller is reading out Eisner nominations and flatly refuses to even attempt to say the name Tomine. Every new chapter ends the same way, mortifying awkwardness and embarrassment the outcome of any and every given situation. The sheer scale of this is genuinely impressive, and makes me feel considerably better about the comparatively modest humiliations I’ve experienced.

Tomine covers a long stretch of life, from 1982 to 2018, and another motif emerges, that of how we connect to other people. As he moves from being young and single, and delighted to meet cartoonists he’s looked up to for years, to meeting his wife and becoming a parent, we can see a change in how he relates to others and what his priorities are. His technique of always drawing his glasses with blank lenses fully masking the eyes behind leaves us free to project our own empathetic feelings upon him. There’s a running gag about how to pronounce his name and various manglings by people less cowardly than Frank Miller. The self-deprecating tradition of successful cartoonists writing autobio is very much in evidence here. Whatever you think of Tomine, he’s undeniably great with a punchline, and this is more apparent now that he is writing about his own life rather than one of his fictional characters. Frankly, it seems it would be cruel of his publisher to send him on a book tour for this, but perhaps COVID-related virtualisation will at least mean he can do a reading then click ‘leave’ rather than make excruciating small talk or sit alone in a nearby restaurant.

The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Cartoonist is a nicely presented clothbound hardback made to look like a squared Moleskine notebook, complete with bookmark and elastic closing band - I definitely wouldn’t wait for the paperback here if you can spring for this edition. Either way, it’s another very good book from Tomine. Pete Redrup

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An engrossing and affecting coming of age story, Sophie Yanow’s The Contradictions is a fascinating study of making friends, anarchism and hitchhiking across Europe. If you’ve ever bought an interrail ticket and hopped on a train to “find yourself”, you’ll identify with protagonist Sophie. After choosing to study in Paris from her home in California on a whim, she desperately seeks out like-minded people – namely queer, left-wing feminists. Based on nothing more than her fixie bike, Sophie introduces herself to Zena, a vegan from Brooklyn and self-proclaimed anarchist. They strike up a friendship based more on convenience and a smattering of shared interests than a strong immediate connection – reminiscent of the short-lived friendships often founded in the early days of University. Seeking the spirit of adventure and following in the roots of her hippy parents, Sophie and Zena decide to hitchhike from Paris to Berlin, via Amsterdam and Ghent. The problem, Sophie slowly discovers, is that Zena is something of a miser, not to mention full of the hypocrisies shared by many young idealists. She doesn’t enjoy dancing and seems consistently unimpressed with the art and culture that Europe has to offer. She’s seemingly more interested in roaming the streets of Amsterdam in the hope of bumping onto her ex-boyfriend, shoplifting and pontificating about the cruelty of animal products, than embracing the spirit of the trip. It’s clear that the delicately observed interpersonal relationships are based on her own experiences, and Sophie makes an affable guide. One of the qualities of her work is her ability to capture your attention, despite a relatively low level of drama or conflict, compared with other coming of age stories of the same ilk. The Contradictions is a familiar story of life in your early twenties. Of banking a little too much on a fleeting friendship, of eagerly seeking a connection or a story to tell, and finding the reality isn’t quite what you imagined. Joe Marczynski