Drawn & Quarterly has announced the October release of Killing and Dying, the newest collection of Adrian Tomine's long-running  Optic Nerve series. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the cartoonist's acclaimed comic.

“D+Q first published Adrian Tomine’s comics in 1995 and in the ensuing two decades it’s been a real privilege to see how he has continued to evolve as an artist, a writer, and overall as a cartoonist,” publisher Chris Oliveros said in a statement. “Killing and Dying just might be my favorite book by Adrian. We’ve come to expect from him an eloquent visual sensibility and insightful, complex storytelling, but there’s something else going on here: these stories are darkly funny, and they’re tinged with a very particular acerbic wit that we haven’t seen all too often before this.”

In an interview with The New Yorker, Tomine reflects on the evolution of Optic Nerve -- he began self-publishing the comic at age 16 -- and why he's stuck with the "pamphlet" format.

"It’s helpful for me to have a series of small deadlines rather than one monumental one, and it’s been very useful to hear feedback on my work as it progresses, " he said. "I also just have a personal attachment to the comic-book format and some of the editorial and design components that come with it. And, maybe most significantly, I am self-doubting enough that I’ve always liked the idea that people tend to approach comic books with kind of low expectations. At least, that’s how it felt when I first started publishing my work. Now, graphic novels are very respectable and held to much higher standards, and that’s a little terrifying."

Killing and Dying will be the eighth book Tomine has published with Drawn & Quarterly. Earlier this week the publisher officially announced the September release of Step Aside, Pops, the second collection from Hark! A Vagrant creator Kate Beaton.