Tomine, left to his own devices: UC-Berkeley's Daily Californian covers a bookstore appearance by Adrian Tomine to promote Scrapbook:

"For those stuck in a Marvel rut, 'alternative comics' are comic strips with a more literary, high art take on writing and drawing stories, while exploiting the specific artistic possibilities of comics as a medium. Tomine distinguishes alternative from mainstream comics by this highly edited, personal style versus 'an assembly-line product with a lot of the creative decisions made by editors.'

"He said that an alternative comic is instead the work of a single artist, 'left to his own devices.'"