Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings...

Adrian Tomine spoke at Bookcourt in Brooklyn last Thursday- it was quite a thrilling and rare occasion to see an artist elaborate on what, in this case he spent the last five years completing. The collection of Shortcomings in a beautiful hardcover volume truly establishes Tomine's dominance of the genre of comic books while growing and touching on territory that is usually foreign in his work.

The story, which is familiar to the Optic Nerve reader (#9-11), follows its tortured protagonist Ben Tanaka and steadily sinking (relation)ship with his girl friend Miko. Sounds like the usual Tomine story, however, he manages to insert some larger messages about modern society, racial & sexual stereotypes, and even American Apparel. This is a bi-coastal story of a man grappling with his identity as an Asian American and as a man looking for companionship. Unfortunately he manages to look in some of the wrong places all together, and while being the main character is not without his flaws. The beautiful image of Miko on a pillowcase is the culmination of the other female characters he's featured on patterned pillowcases (see Optic Nerve #4 "Hazel Eyes" & "Break-Up Part 2" in Scrapbook.).

Tomine's drawings and the composition of his panels has never been better. He offers many fresh angles while sticking to rather conventional comic set up. By sticking to the rules he manages to come up with more interesting ideas to get around the constraints he set up for himself. Tomine revealed that he did not use narration text to describe actions, a very intense decision to commit to. He accomplished this so smoothly that I wasn't even aware until he mentioned it in the interview conducted by Nicole Rudick.

The two had a good chemistry and she asked many of the probing questions that I'm sure were on the mind of many in attendance. He also accepted questions from the audience which ran the gambit from banal (what music do you listen to when working?) to the obtuse (How do you do you make your characters sound so realistic?). When he signed my lithograph & poster I asked him my question which was in regards to the novelistic and cinematic elements to his work if he would ever do either a novel or a movie? He replied that he had no plans to flex his novel writing muscles, but he insinuated that he would do a movie for the right price.

This collection is certainly worth purchasing for both the diehard fan as well as the person who is just getting into comics - as some one mentioned at the the Q & A - that Tomine is a "gateway comic" artist. The book is the result of Optic Nerve 9-11 and for the more casual Tomine fan may be better in that form. The serial nature of it and the letters that Tomine publishes are priceless, plus the single issues are only 4 bucks each. However, don't be too quick to call Tomine a money grubber, these were originally envisioned as book in a final stage. Also by releasing it in Optic Nerve he gave the true comic fans, and small comic stores the chance to get ahead before regular bookstores and newspapers took notice. It gave readers a chance to see progress, however the response was that it took too long between stories.

The night was a great experience and it was amazing to be so up close and personal with Tomine. He was very nice and took his time signing each piece for the many people in attendance. I asked him for a sketch which he said he would do if I waited around (unfortunately I couldn't because right from there I ran over to Hoboken to see the Brunettes). One of the more brilliant promotional ideas for the comic is definitely the post cards that Ben finds of Miko printed in real life. It is a great way to illustrate the way that comic books are finding their place in the real world. Shortcomings is anything but.