EPICANTHUS

—From boingboing

Under the dust jacket of Adrian Tomine’s first graphic novel, Shortcomings, printed along the bottom edge of the front cover, lies a ruler. It’s a gentle nod to a recurring joke that reveals the insecurities of the book’s main character, Ben Tanaka, a chubby, grouchy movie theater manager recently abandoned by his girlfriend. At one point, as he is considering dating a lesbian in the hopes that she’ll be less “size-conscious,” he repeats a riddle he heard in college: “What’s the main difference between Asian and Caucasian men? … The Cauc.” —Salon