LITTLE NOTHINGS
Vol.1: The Curse of the Umbrella
Lewis Trondheim
The great talent behind the new generation in Europe, the Dungeon series, A.L.I.E.E.E.N. and Mr. O, pours his heart out in funny snippets of everyday life. His paranoia, little annoyances, big annoyances, chase of rainbows, love of comics, travel impressions from around the world, dealing with kids, being a kid: it’s all about life as we know it. A collection from his comics blog that expands his palette with full color painting, one can only be awed at Trondheim’s uncanny sense of observation and relate to all his experiences closely. Another touch of genius by one of today’s best and most influential comic artists.
"They're at times cute, telling, hilarious, and transcendent–and usually insightful. Well worth checking out. Whether you're laughing with him or cringing at him, odds are you can relate to him. ***1/2"
-Ray Sidman, Comics Buyer's Guide
"This guy is just like me, and I imagine anyone who reads this will see a little of themselves in him" -Comic Book Resources
"One is left feeling comforted by the shared absurdities of life in the 21st century. A charmingly lighthearted stroll through life."
-Publishers Weekly
"Extraordinary artist."
-Booklist
"Really delightful – witty, astute, low-key, sweet, and polished, but never fussy. It’s also gorgeous. I just can’t say enough good things about this book. It’s charming, funny and sincere without being saccharine or remotely self-involved."
-David Welsh, Precocious Curmudgeon
"Trondheim’s art is typically beautiful. He’s taken his craft to a new level here. Highly recommended."
-Greg McElhatton, ReadAboutComics.com
"If the Curse of the Umbrella isn't the best thing that NBM has ever published in its 30 years of making graphic albums available to the English-language market, it's one of the top three. Moreover, it's the best showcase for Lewis Trondheim North American readers have yet encountered. these deceptively simple diary comics provide our first, full measure of one of the most important cartoonists of the last 25 years. It's the best new book I've read so far this year, and I can't imagine I'll read a half-dozen better than this one by next January 1. You should really buy it."
-Tom Spurgeon, Thecomicsreporter.com
"Lewis Trondheim tells it honestly, without compulsion, without self-loathing. It is part of NBM’s Comicslit program, aiming to publish graphic novels about the human experience and Little Nothings is nothing if not that."
-BrokenFrontier.com
"Fans of James Kochalka's American Elf will find he has an international soulmate in Lewis Trondheim. Quirky, cute, and yet microdetailed with the inflections of a peculiar life, Little Nothings is a hoot..." -The Onion
"Beautifully scribbled strips center on such existential hiccups as extreme self-doubt, spontaneous superstitions and unjustified paranoia." -The Washington Post
6x9, 128pp., full color trade pb. with flaps, $14.95
ISBN 978-1-56163-523-8

Mister O
Lewis Trondheim
Goofy silent one page gags crammed with little frames showing Mr. O, a round doodle of a man, desperately trying to get over across that darn chasm and somehow never quite making it, over to the other side. Will keep you in stitches for pages. More of Trondheim’s genius at work!
"Trondheim's nimble pen strokes can imbue even a squiggle (or an "O") with humor and pathos. We turn each page as much to see if Trondheim will let his little man off the cliff as what he'll invent to keep him on it."
-Washington Post
"I can't get over how inventive Mr. Trondheim is in the exercise of such a basic idea. It reminds me somewhat of the better Road Runner cartoons. The man is a genius."
-David LeBlanc, Comic Book Net
"Lewis Trondheim's work falls somewhere between pure genius and "you've gotta be kidding me." The fact that Trondheim is able to convey emotion in a balloon-head stick figure is significant."
-Michael Sangiacomo, Cleveland Plain Dealer/Newhouse papers
"At first, the busy, crowded pages and postage-stamp-sized panels of Lewis Trondheim's book Mister O (NBM) seem repetitive and slightly intimidating, but each of his single-page, 60-panel cartoons opens up into its own fascinating, demented little world. Each of the 30 cartoons wordlessly follows a little anthropomorphic blob as it attempts to cross a crevice in increasingly outlandish ways, invariably with tragic results. Trondheim's sick, hilarious visual gags seem like creative new twists on Wile E. Coyote's famously unsuccessful obsession..."
The Onion
"The effect is reminiscent of a collection of Charlie-Brown-and-the-football strips or Road Runner cartoons stripped down to their barest, micro-minimal essence of line, color and existential frustration, and ending up with something universal and hilarious."
-Publishers Weekly starred review
9x113/4, hardcover, full color, $13.95, ISBN 1-56163-382-8

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NOMINATED FOR AN EISNER AWARD 2007
Best Writer/artist-Humor

Mister i
Lewis TRONDHEIM
After the greatly successful Mr. O, here comes another batch of goofy gags crammed with little frames showing the mishaps of Mr. i, who, no matter what he tries, always ends up killed, poor fellah. You gotta love him, he’s a walking disaster.
"Communicated with such ease, such elegance, with such deceptively meager pictorial resources, the strips are absolute triumphs of fundamental cartoon engineering." -Rich Kreiner, Comic Journal
"Razor-sharp sense of timing."
- Chris Mautner, Harrisburg Patriot News
"Part of the humor lies in Trondheim's ingenuity in conjuring predicaments and in the marvelous expressiveness of his simple figures." -Library Journal
"Judging his talent by this newest bit Trondheim is certainly a standout." -Publishers Weekly
9x111/2 , full color hardcover: $13.95, ISBN 1-56163-486-7

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