Optic Nerve (1995)

Adrian Tomine's self-published Optic Nerve minicomics, 1991 to 1994 Adrian Tomine was still in high school when he began self-publishing Optic Nerve as small homemade minicomics, seven issues between 1991 and 1994. Drawn & Quarterly then signed him and relaunched it as a regular comic in 1995, renumbering from one. The minicomics are where you can watch a teenager teach himself to draw quiet, precise stories about loneliness and awkward young adults, the style that later made his New Yorker covers and graphic novels. Drawn & Quarterly collects them as 32 Stories, which is the place to see how much a cheap homemade series can build.