Present
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A LYRICAL EXPLORATION OF THE CITY AND MEMORY, AS DRAWN BY A VICE CARTOONIST
Leslie Stein takes us on a sinuous urban stroll divorced from destination, glimpsing New York City through her open eyes. While she is closing up a bar late at night, she is also an adolescent at a rave in the mountains, an adult grappling with her grandfather’s fading memory or at one of her first waitressing jobs. Stein is a master storyteller, an urban explorer, and a loyal guide through dark days and simple, blissful encounters. Stein’s curiosity about and generosity toward the world around her come through powerfully: each colorful story flows with vivid watercolors and delicate ink lines. Here, an autobiography is built through memories and moments tied together by loose lines, evoking a beautiful dreamlike yet endlessly relatable glimpse into the world of a thirty-something woman carving out a life for herself, one step at a time.
Known for her acclaimed Eye of the Majestic Creature series, collected here are Stein’s serialized Vice.com comics which have become a staple for the site, showcasing her storytelling abilities with a freer style. With an introduction and new material, Present will be a deluxe die-cut hardcover that is a meditation on memory. Stein is asking us to take a moment to be here now, while acknowledging the other places and people we always carry with us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stein (Bright-Eyed at Midnight) finds beauty in the mundane in this warmhearted collection of diary comics originally published online at Vice. From a walk across the Manhattan Bridge to a bit of slapstick in a retirement home to fretting over her relationship with her mother, Stein portrays every moment with sincerity; cynicism is laudably absent from this candy-colored world. Darker themes also emerge; some of the best comics contemplate aging and loneliness. But every page is suffused with empathy, while resisting the saccharine: there are no tidy endings, nor smug moralizing. Stein's vibrant watercolors are a marvel, especially in the palette: dribbles of cerulean, slashes of black, and dots of deepest crimson are as captivating as any plot twist. Even the lettering tells a story, often exploding on the page in different colors and sizes. It all adds up to a sweet, relatable portrait of the minutiae that make life worth living.
