Austin Kleon – Page 494

Okay, I really hate reviewing books, but I also want to keep track of the good fiction and comics stuff I’ve read lately, so here:

	Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine Not my kind of story, not my kind of style, but a really well-executed, 100-page story. I think Tomine’s a terrific artist, and I love his sketchbooks and illustration work (his New Yorker covers are always great). This book deserves the attention it’s getting. Buy it on Amazon Adrian Tomine’s official site Tasteful PBS segment on the book Tomine on Fresh air — (listen to Terry Gross talk about speech balloons)
	The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd Went to see Chip Kidd talk a couple of weeks ago, so I read his first novel. It’s very funny and a quick read, and anybody who’s been through an art-school critique would appreciate the great classroom scenes. (Kidd modeled the fictional Winter Sorbeck off his own professor at Penn State, the graphic designer Lammy Sommese.) And since so much of the action takes place in the classroom, it sort of functions as a wacky introduction to graphic design. I recommend it. Buy it on Amazon
	Crickets #2 by Sammy Harkham This is a comic book. For $5, you get a bunch of stories, all of them pretty wild and pretty great. Sammy is one of my favorite cartoonists, and I’d been looking forward to this for a while. It didn’t disappoint. Buy it from Drawn + Quarterly Great review by Ken Parille
	Big Questions by Anders Nilsen I’ve been following this series for a while. I found #3 last week in a bargain bin at my local Half Price books—it’s amazing how much Nilsen has grown as an artist. I buy everything he makes, and so should everyone else. Buy from Drawn + Quarterly Anders’ blog Interview My review of Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow
	The Perry Bible Fellowship by Nicholas Gurewitch This is bathroom reading: most of the strips are the equivalent of a good dick joke. A good and hilarious dick joke. Buy it from Amazon Read the strip online