Steven Rea's Picks

Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine Drawn & Quarterly, 128 pp. $22.96. Stories about parenting and family, illness and stand-up comedy, about porn stars (a case of mistaken identity), about a landscape gardener with grand artistic ambitions fill the pages of Tomine's latest collection of artfully rendered, keenly observed tales of everyday life. Fans of his Optic Nerve comic book series, and of his New Yorker covers, already know the genius of Tomine's work; newcomers should take advantage of the free admission Thursday to see Tomine talk about his work at the Free Library, 1901 Vine St., at 7:30 p.m. Poet and novelist Ben Lerner will lead the conversation with Tomine, who, in a New Yorker interview this year, talked about his evolution as an artist and storyteller: "In the beginning, I was writing almost exclusively about myself and my own experiences. And then that mutated a little bit into writing slightly fictionalized versions of my own life and experiences. When I started this book, one of the guidelines I put down for myself . . . was to not write about me - to invent and pick settings and characters who were not like me at all. Of course, now . . . I can see all kinds of autobiographical content throughout it. But I think the idea of finding common ground with characters who seem completely alien was a good challenge for me, both as an artist and as a person."

For more info: 215-567-4341, or www.freelibrary.org/

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2015 Kickstarter Film Festival at 7 p.m. Thursday, PFS Roxy, 2020 Sansom St. Two programs of recent crowd-funded features and shorts are on the slate - and on the house (yes, free admission with an RSVP). Titles include the hysterical verité vampire comedy from New Zealand, What We Do in the Shadows, paired with the outer space spoof Afronauts, about a crew from Zambia trying to beat the U.S. to the moon.

The second half of the evening is anchored by T-Rex, the documentary about female boxer Claressa "T-Rex" Shields and her quest for Olympic gold, along with two animated shorts, "Submarine Sandwich" and "World of Tomorrow." Did we say the Kickstarter fest is free? To RSVP, go to: filmfest.kickstarter.com and click the RSVP button on the Philadelphia location.