Present

By: Leslie Stein

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Hardcover | 17 January 2017

At a Glance

Hardcover
168 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
20.32 x 15.88 x 1.91

Hardcover

$40.75

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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 asks us to take a moment to be here now, while acknowledging the other places and people we always carry with us.

Industry Reviews

"[Present] is visually minimalist -- yet expansive in terms of honesty and emotion."--Hollywood Reporter

"Reading Leslie Stein's comics - drawn from evanescent moments in daily life and the curious memories they encourage to surface - always feels strangely immersive, like experiencing the inside of someone else's head... [Present offers] modest, compassionate epiphanies."--Globe & Mail

"A collection of diarylike graphic short stories -- frank, charming, insightful meditations on daily life that manage to be sentimental but not cloyingly so."--Buzzfeed, Best Books of 2017

"The drawings in Leslie Stein's new book, Present, are prismatic, loopy, and effervescent. Her handwritten dialogue, squiggly forms, and watercolor washes are irresistible... I was caught off guard by the aching loneliness that permeates the book's autobiographical stories... by book's end, the loneliness feels companionable, like your reflection in a mirror."--Paris Review

"With minimalist linework and delicate watercolors... Stein brings a setting to life with rich color. [Present] is full of smart artistic choices that illuminate Stein's feelings in the moment, [in which] readers can discover the full range of her talent."--AV Club

"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... 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."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Inventive and utterly unique."--Booklist

"Weird, warm, refined, delicate, softly precise and open-hearted, all at the same time."--Paste

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