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Tune, Book 1: Vanishing Point (Tune #1)

3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 · rating details · 190 ratings · 54 reviews

Andy's life is going nowhere, fast. He left art school with his career all worked out ahead of time, but ...to sayit didn't work out is the understatement of the century. Unemployed and living with his overbearing parents, Andystruggles to keep sight of the lofty goals that once drove him. But it's hard, even when he reconnects with his old art school crush, Yumi.Thingsloo...more

Paperback, 160 pages

Published November 13th 2012 by First Second

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May 10, 2013 The Holy Terror rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: borrowed, graphic-novels, korean-authors, male-author, male-protagonist, adult, science-fiction, aliens, asian-authors, asian-characters, korean-characters

Completely missed that this was a volume 1 and not a stand alone, and it ends on a cliffhanger right when the story gets interesting. Figures! (You guys can thank me, I just added the series info and "Book 1" to the title so you're not duped like I was.)

Not bad but kind of annoying that this is going to be one of those "boy finds out girl's true feelings through reading something he was told not to" which of course is going to piss her off when she finds out and then there will be that conflict...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Ottery StCatchpole rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really wanted to like this book, and OMG! I was not disappointed. Its no secret I'm a big fan of Derek Kirk Kim's art. It is beyond cute, the style is cartoony and adorable and just all around cool. A very simple style that hides a lot of talent. Its one of those art styles that has people going, "I could do that" just because they used to dabble in drawing 'Once upon a time'. It doesn't hurt that he's a protege/friend of Gene Luen Yang of American Born Chinese fame. Their styles are very sim...more I really wanted to like this book, and OMG! I was not disappointed. Its no secret I'm a big fan of Derek Kirk Kim's art. It is beyond cute, the style is cartoony and adorable and just all around cool. A very simple style that hides a lot of talent. Its one of those art styles that has people going, "I could do that" just because they used to dabble in drawing 'Once upon a time'. It doesn't hurt that he's a protege/friend of Gene Luen Yang of American Born Chinese fame. Their styles are very similar.
In any event, art styles aside, Tune is a compilation of the first couple 100 pages of Mr. Kim's web comic Tune. Its a story about a boy out of college, dropped out, who is forced by his parents to find a job and essentially 'grow up' with his life by giving up his dream of being an illustrator. Perhaps because I was there once in my life, and because I once dreamed of being an illustrator too, and finding love and all that stuff the story resonates with me. A lot of this book deals with us getting to know Andy Go and of course the situations that made his life what it is at present. Its is a very slice-of-life kind of comic, if you ignore the beginning and the end. And it works that way very much, but this is very much a science fiction story.
To begin with, Andy's job is to be a human exhibit in an alien zoo. So yeah. I imagine we will see a lot more of that later in the series, at present and what is covered in the volume of this book are Andy's adventures on earth.
He is a very cute character, I love the way Mr. Kim draws Andy. So it was easy for me to fall in love with him. His self-deprecating nature, and his failures and foibles make him all too human, and young. I remember being that age, and being that jaded with life and thinking I had it all planned out and together, and that's ultimately what I think the premise of this whole series will be about, in a roundabout science fictional sort of way. But in all fairness I have not read the three times weekly comic that this book is the first volume of. You can however catch up with the book once you're done here:

http://www.tunecomic.com/

Or you can just start reading the comic there, and don't bother getting the book. For myself, I will most definitely be purchasing this book. It is whimsical, and cute, and I am definitely in love with the very likeable character of Andy and his adventures. I don't think it matters what race or color you are some of the situations are very much universal. Perhaps even the being an exhibit at an inter-dimensional zoo.
The black and white art are lovely, and Mr. Kim has a very detailed style. The dialogue sounds real, and the situations as I've said only too familiar to art school drop outs, slackers, and anyone with parents who at one time or another possibly felt their children were not doing anything with their lives. A light, lovely read that I hope will soon be followed by more books. It ends on a cliffie but you can continue reading the stories at the link I mentioned above.

For myself, I am going to buy this book it is too cute, funny, and lovely to pass up, and Andy like the artwork in the book is just too cute to pass up.(less)

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Feb 23, 2013 Nicholas Karpuk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Derek Kirk Kim was an artist I stumbled on to in the early days of my webcomic interest. I remember reading through everything on his website, returning a few times, and forgetting about him after a while when it took too long for anything new to appear. This was long before I had a massive collection of bookmarks that I would open in one long strip every single day, so it fell through the cracks.

When I saw this book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble, the name and the fun art style filled immed...more

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Nov 16, 2012 Alexander Hoffman rated it 1 of 5 stars

There are a number of significant problems with this book.

1) The formatting is perhaps the most amateurish I have ever seen in a published graphic novel.

The book lists 155 pages. If you eliminate the 20 pages that are either blank or new chapters (yes 1 out of every 8 pages has no content) you're left with 135 pages. Which would be fine if those pages featured full sized drawings or a panel layout not done by what seems to have been a drunk monkey.

I am not sure who thought "let's arrange every...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Nojh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, aliens, comedy, comic, drama, fiction, humor, modern, science-fiction, space, speculative-fiction

I've been reading this as a online comic for some time now. It has a very compelling story and interesting characters. As an online comic I had one major gripe and that was how slow the story was told from page to page. As a collected graphic novel I suspect this problem will not exist, except perhaps from volume to volume, which would be another testament to how engaging the story is.

For the purposes of a synopsis, Tune: Vanishing Point collects the first eleven chapters of the graphic novel Tu...more

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May 27, 2012 Andrew Shuping rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel

ARC provided by NetGalley

Andy is just your average guy. He knows what he wants to do in life, a career in comics, and has it all planned out. So he leaves art school early to set off on his journey...and quickly finds himself unemployed. His parents becoming dissatisfied with his inability to land a job (and lounging around the house) and force him to find one, any type of job,...or they’ll find one for him. And everything seems to hit rock bottom. No one will hire him, heck a crazy homeless guy...more ARC provided by NetGalley

Andy is just your average guy. He knows what he wants to do in life, a career in comics, and has it all planned out. So he leaves art school early to set off on his journey...and quickly finds himself unemployed. His parents becoming dissatisfied with his inability to land a job (and lounging around the house) and force him to find one, any type of job,...or they’ll find one for him. And everything seems to hit rock bottom. No one will hire him, heck a crazy homeless guy gets hired ahead of him. And then a magical day happens. Andy sees Yumi (his art school crush), discovers that she likes him, and finds a job to work at a zoo! There’s just one problem...the zoo job is an alternate dimension and Andy is one of the exhibits.

I’ve been following Tune since it came out in webcomic format and it’s quickly become one of my favorite webcomics to keep up with. Although this first volume starts off a bit slow, as its setting up the world and the universe, it picks up pace in the following chapters (that can be viewed online.) In this volume though we get a good sense of the characters that we’ll be following in the series, especially Andy. I like that Andy is your average guy, for the most part. I can see elements of myself in his story, which of course makes me cringe at times (especially when he realizes that Yumi might actually like him) because I’ve made some of the same choices, the same decisions, and my life mirrors Andy in some ways. And that’s what makes this such a great story, that it is easy to relate to Andy and Yumi. We’ve all mapped out our life and had it veer off into different directions (hopefully no one is an exhibit in a zoo though.) I like the sense of humanity and humility that Derek brings to the characters and I can’t wait to see where he takes them next.

Derek’s artwork is very similar at times to Gene Luen Yang, expressive characters and movements that eerily resemble real life, even in cartoon format. It’s easy to imagine that you could walk out the door and meet Andy, Yumi, and the rest of the gang. Some of my favorite depictions are of the dad, mostly because he hides behind the newspaper and grunts. I love that we don’t get to see his face and the fact that he acts like many dads out there (no, not TV ones..those guys are just fantasy.) The one thing that I will note is that after this volume Les McClaine took over the artwork so that Derek was able to put out the story more often. He has a similar style to Gene’s but he really makes the characters his own (but that’s a discussion for the next volume.)

This story has a nice blending of sci-fi and real life, which makes it easy for folks to dive into and read. It’s a story that I highly recommend and I can’t wait to see what happens next. 4 out of 5 stars. (less)

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Jan 17, 2013 GRPLTeens Grand Rapids Public Library rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel

Appeal Characteristics: nerds, comic illustrators, starving artists, Korean Americans, college, alien life form, zoo, relationships, first loves, growing up

This book was hilarious. I think the farfetched ideal appeal worked. I think I'm also laughing because Eddy's (my bf) parents sound EXACTLY like the way they're described in this book. Anyway, Andy is a is a dropout college illustrator who has never had a girlfriend...and wants to be an illustrator for the high end publishing companies. He qu...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Adriana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel

http://shesgotbooksonhermind.blogspot...

Andy Go is an Art Major. He could be best described as a nerd in college. I can also describe him as ridiculously similar to my brother and his friends but you don't know them now do you? So basically the illustrator guys and one girl who like comics and know almost everything about them. They are super smart usually but can be super lazy. They go to Comic Cons and aspire to be one of the greats or maybe not. Not all nerds can draw. They can also be inappr...more http://shesgotbooksonhermind.blogspot...

Andy Go is an Art Major. He could be best described as a nerd in college. I can also describe him as ridiculously similar to my brother and his friends but you don't know them now do you? So basically the illustrator guys and one girl who like comics and know almost everything about them. They are super smart usually but can be super lazy. They go to Comic Cons and aspire to be one of the greats or maybe not. Not all nerds can draw. They can also be inappropriate like these guys and one girl can be so you are warned. Think college.

The comic all starts out with Andy discovering himself with all his clothes on even his shoes which is weird for him because he is a perpetual neat freak. Also lights are on oddly then as he's using the bathroom he discovers... yes my friends there is an audience watching him relieve himself. How did he get to this point? You'll find out later by going back 5 months ago and meeting all his friends as well hearing him saying the stupidest thing that he will later fully regret.

He's been friends with Roger since grade school wasting their days drawing comics. Specifically He-Man comics. More specifically She-Ra. Even more specifically She-Ra's breasts. Expect this and more. His other friend Tony he met in anatomy class freshmen year and knew they would be friends when he was reciting things to remember for the first test in Klingon. My brother doesn't know Klingon and I really hope it stays that way. At least I really really hope he doesn't. These guys were fun to watch together and hope for more funny interactions.

I said one girl on purpose. Then there is Yumi who Andy has been hopelessly in love with since the day they met two years ago. Out come the hearts around him when she's thinking about how much she loves him. It's quite adorable. But like any other socially awkward person he has said nothing. Ah, now he sounds more like me. She has his sense of humor and are always kidding around plus she's a great artist. I can see how he would think she would reject him... No! He's a funny and charming character. I absolutely love him. I say that a lot about fictional character don't I? Well, it's true.

Back to the part where he makes the stupidest mistake that he will woefully regret later. That is he decides that he's not going to go to one more year of college. He's going to drop out. Cue disapproving noise whatever you want to imagine that noise be. Not surprisingly he's at home months later where he's living with his parents and has no job. He's Korean which I love because go diversity! According to him a Korean mother crying sound like a (to me) cartoon making a sound because they see someone hot. There crying is an ai-goo! Maybe I'm thinking Aiooga! Enough with the noises... Anyways his parents are making him get a job any job. His desperate attempt not to be kicked out gets him in the worst trouble there is. Or is it? It depends on you I guess. With that you are brought to the present tense and you will now know what he's gotten himself into.(less)

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Mar 07, 2013 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel

Definitely an entertaining and enjoyable read. Derek Kirk Kim's protagonist Andy Go drops out of art school and his parents have given him a week to find a job. And if job troubles weren't enough, Andy hates himself for never being able to work up the courage to ask out his art school crush, Yumi. On day 7, after a depressing series of job interviews and rejections, Andy ends up with Yumi's sketchbook/diary and learns that his love for her may just be shared -- he just has to see her and find ou...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels

Appeal Characteristics: nerds, comic illustrators, starving artists, Korean Americans, college, alien life form, zoo, relationships, first loves, growing up

This book was hilarious. I think the farfetched ideal appeal worked. I think I'm also laughing because Eddy's parents sound EXACTLY like the way they're described in this book. Anyway, Andy is a guy who has never had a girlfriend...and wants to be an illustrator for the high end publishing companies. He quits school to pursue this dream...wit...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Sarah Rosenberger rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels, scifi, poc

Andy Go's an art school dropout. When he decided to leave school, he assumed he'd immediately land an awesome job illustrating the cover of Time magazine or something, but instead, he ends up living with his parents, watching a lot of tv, and harboring a hopeless crush on Yumi, a student at his former school. When his parents approach him and tell him it's time to get a job or get out, he goes on a desperate job hunt. Turns out the only job he's qualified for is a little bit weird...

I really lik...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics, humorous, sci-fi

I love Kim's illustrations here, but I think this volume spent far too much time setting up the characters before introducing the biggest plot element. This was a little aggravating because the consequences of his later decision are teased in the first pages of the title, but it takes nearly the entire book for him to get around to making that choice. That being said, I think this will work better if the whole series-to-be is collected in one volume. I really felt for the sad sack Korean son and...more

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Nov 23, 2012 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, graphic-novel, arc, netgalley

Tune: Vanishing Point is a bit of an odd book. It begins with the main character, Andy Go, waking up as an exhibit in a zoo and flashes back to the events leading up to it. Andy's story is a mundane one with demanding parents and struggles to make it as an illustrator, but Derek Kirk Kim makes the mundane enjoyable with likable characters and great illustration. The last few chapters flip drastically to the extreme fantastic and I'm not quite sure where the book is going. The ending is listed as...more

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Dec 12, 2012 First Second Books marked it as first-second-publications

The first thing to say here (so we can get it out of the way at the beginning) is that Derek Kirk Kim's art is wonderful. I'm not sure how he draws with as clean of a line as he does -- maybe he's magical? Or a robot? Either of these things may be possible -- we may have to perform a magical!Turing test.

The premise of this book is the kind of thing that ends up in, 'and then we all went crazy and ended up in outer space without a towel' type of age-old drama -- boy likes girl (secretly); girl li...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics

DKK is always an interesting read. I love his ideas and I especially love his characterization. This one is no exception, but it left me wanting in a few ways. His art is stellar, as always, the iconic style he uses is literally boxed in, maybe commenting on a theme? Story-wise, I had a hard time finding any sort of sympathy for the main character. I suppose there is redemption around the corner, but for the first volume, it was a bit hard to root for him. In addition, there's not a lot of forwa...more

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May 13, 2012 Elia rated it 5 of 5 stars

I HAAAAAAATE that I have to wait goodness knows how long until Volume 2 comes out! This story is terrific, and hilarious. As I was reading it I kept thinking Derek Kirk Kim had been stalking my younger brother, wrote the story of his life, but made him Korean instead of Mexican. The only negative I have is that for me, the sci-fi element introduced in the final few chapters actually took AWAY from the story and made me enjoy it slightly less that I had been up to that point, where it was simply...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I first started reading TUNE, I didn't think I'd like it. The beginning is a bit slow at getting to the main plot, but in hindsight, it was the perfect lead up to Andy's current location. Like many other great books, one has to get through the intro to get into a fascinating plot.

What I love the most about TUNE is the characters. Andy Go is one of the most well rounded characters I've ever seen; he's very realistic. Although we haven't seen as much of them as we have Andy, Dash and Yumi are...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Ron rated it 4 of 5 stars

This really is the slow part of the story. The contents of the second book (chapters 11-18) are available online at www.tunecomic.com. Things do pick up more, especially during the end of that. The first book still does a great job of setting things up, as Derek Kim writes with a surprising level of depth that doesn't force the artwork to carry a lot of the backstory. In regards to the art, Les McClaine's work is great. At first, I thought it was Kim's art at first, but McClaine brings the kind...more

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Feb 22, 2013 April rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: asian-american, coming-of-age, middle-class, self-deprecating, young-adult, graphic-novel

In good faith I attempted to read a second graphic novel by Derek Kirk Kim, but am again met with disappointment. Now that I've been exposed to more of his material, I can better articulate what annoys me about his work. Believe me, I want to like his work--he's Asian American. Solidarity, and all of that. Nope. Can. not. support.

It seems that Mr. Kim relies on autobiographical details to inform his characterization. Well, his leading males just aggravate me! They're self-pitying, self-deprecati...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Nathan Herald rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-challenge

Tune is one of those stories that you either love or hate. Personally, I think I developed a little bit of a man crush on Derek Kirk Kim after reading this.
Tune tells the story of a slacker Korean American art student who is severely lacking in personal worth, with an overinflated sense of talent and traditional (almost stereotypical) parents. Combined with the fact that he's in love with a fellow art student who, unbeknownst to him, is crushing on him as well. After making the brilliant decis...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Michele rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: format-arc, format-ebook, genre-graphic-novel, 2012-50bookpledge

This, and other reviews can be found on my blog Just a Lil' Lost

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (4.5/5 stars)

Andy feels uninspired and unmotivated with where his art degree will take him and decides to drop out in his final year. His parents, however, won’t let him lie around and pressures him to go out and find a job if he won’t be continuing with his education. Between figuring out his future and longing for Yumi, his art school crush, Andy feels even more lost than ever. That is until he lands a job offer...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Evan Jensen rated it 5 of 5 stars

The flawed and everyday characters of Kim's work have always been the great foundation to his weird and quirky situations. TUNE is no different in that respect, but here I feel like his storytelling really shines. I can't wait for book 3 to be drawn and published.

The art for TUNE is wonderful without being derivative or trite. I think the character designs of the whole thing are a pleasure to look at and the panels flow smoothly.

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Jan 13, 2013 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, graphicnovels, science-fiction, ya, multicultural

How could I resist a book about a kid going to art school? In San Francisco? Not gonna happen. This one's got an almost irresistibly fun premise that will appeal to older YA and adult audiences—the kid who's pressured by his parents to do something productive with his life but instead decides to go to art school. Then, horror of horrors, he decides to DROP OUT of art school. That goes about as well as you might expect, but then, finally, a job offer does materialize: it's just…not what anyone ex...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel

I like Derek Kirk Kim's comics. Discovered him sometime in college, but lost track of him a while back. An interview with him was featured on NPR today though, so I clicked over to read his latest comic.

Not knowing what I was getting into storywise was probably the right approach for this one. Genre flitting is fun for me. Can see how it might not be someone else's thing though.

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Dec 18, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels, humor, scifi

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 26, 2013 Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, adult, graphic-novels, psc-reviews

Appropriate for high school or older audience. Main characters in this graphic novel are college students. From the back cover: “your classic romantic slice-of-life science fiction sex comedy adventure.” Speaking as an adult, I enjoyed it quite a bit and would read the next in the series, but it's not appropriate for my middle school and maybe not some high school students as well.

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Nov 12, 2012 Katharina rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, read-2012

The idea behind this is actually a really cool, cute Sci-Fi-meets-slice-of-life kind of thing. And I'd be interested to see where this was going... except... I kind of wanted to slap the main character's face through most of it. Can we, as a society, PLEASE get over "the friend zone" already? I like the story, I just wish it had a different narrator.

ARC was provided by NetGalley

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Mar 09, 2013 Akeiisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics-graphic-novel, fantasy-sci-fi

I know this is the first in series following the character Andy Go, an art school dropout who stumbles into an unusual job, but this first volume didn't go very far. As a set up piece the story moved along nicely; however, I wasn't left wanting to know more about how Andy's life goes once he's tuned into a new world or if he ever asks Yumi, a fellow art student, out on a date.

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Aug 28, 2012 Michaela Keil rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ok, I read this as a webcomic, which is always a bit tough. Updates always move pretty slowly. Now, as a book, there won't be any trouble. The story is really different and the art is hilarious. I love the characters, especially the mum, and I am super excited about where this could go. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for something light and quirky.

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Oct 05, 2012 Sarah S. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley, graphic-novel

I really liked the layout of this GN, including the dark celestial backgrounds. It was a good story, and I enjoyed the emotive characters, which made it easy to understand their personalities.
The one downside was the fact that it is split into multiple volumes, and so the conflict of the story does not develop until two thirds of the way through.

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About Derek Kirk Kim

Derek Kirk Kim is an award-winning Korean-American cartoonist. He won both major industry awards in 2004, the Eisner and the Harvey, for his debut graphic novel Same Difference and Other Stories, which was originally serialized on his website Lowbright (formerly known as "Small Stories"). He also won the Ignatz Award for promising new talent, in 2003, for the same graphic novel (which was original...more

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