Adrian Tomine

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Interior page from Optic Nerve #6 (February 1999).
Interior page from Optic Nerve #6 (February 1999).

Adrian Tomine (born May 31, 1974), a popular contemporary cartoonist, is best known for his ongoing graphic novel series Optic Nerve and his periodical illustrations in The New Yorker.

Despite heavy youth-culture exposure, (he is often referenced in mainstream publications such as Entertainment Weekly and teen TV dramas) Tomine remains a largely underground figure, placed demographically between RAW artists such as Art Spiegelman and Harvey Pekar, and the relationship-oriented artists of the late 90s such as Craig Thompson.

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[edit] Background

Tomine began publishing his work when he was still a teenager (he was mainly self-published, but was also published in mainstream publications like Pulse while still in high school). While his early work was greeted with much acclaim, he faced severe backlash around the time when he made the jump to professional publication, and the letters pages of his modern comics typically feature several highly critical letters where he is accused of creating "trendy" or "emo" characters. He is often compared to his friend Dan Clowes for his signature clean-line style; in fact, he is sometimes accused of ripping off Clowes' style. In an interview published in The Comics Journal #205, Tomine addressed many of these criticisms and discussed his influences in detail, admitting that he was strongly influenced by Clowes but perhaps even more so by Jaime Hernandez. The cover of his Journal issue featured a self-parody of sorts, featuring a sequence where a hipster girl says to the reader, "I'm so cute! I listen to indie rock! But... I'm sad. Can you relate?"

In an interview published on the Drawn and Quarterly website, Tomine discussed printing critical letters in his book: "I imagine most cartoonists receive some negative mail. I just thought it was fair (and entertaining) to allow a range of reactions to be heard. And as for my response, it really varies: some criticism I dismiss completely, and some I take to heart."

Most of Tomine's early works rarely mentioned racial issues and most of his characters appeared to be Caucasian. Tomine, who is Asian American, drew himself in many of his early strips, but did not make his ethnicity clear (he often drew his glasses as being opaque, so his eyes couldn't be seen). In later works, he has explored racial issues more directly, such as in his current, ongoing comics story Shortcomings. Tomine is fourth-generation Japanese American, and both of his parents spent part of their childhoods in Japanese internment camps in the U.S. during WWII. [1]

In the '90s Tomine made an appearance on The Jane Pratt Show, which he documented in Optic Nerve.

[edit] Serialised Comics

[edit] Optic Nerve

Optic Nerve is the ongoing series of comics by Adrian Tomine that were originally self-published and are currently published by Drawn and Quarterly. These comics range from a few pages per story to the 32-page standard in later issues. Issues 1-4 included several stories each and are collected in Sleepwalk and Other Stories and issues 5-8 included one story each and are collected in Summer Blonde. Issues 9-11 were compiled into a graphic novel called 'Shortcomings,' released in September of 2007.

[edit] Optic Nerve #1

The first issue published by Drawn and Quarterly in April 1995 included five short stories entitled 'Sleepwalk', 'Echo Ave.', 'Long Distance', 'Drop' and 'Lunch Break'.

[edit] Optic Nerve #2

The second issue contains four stories. 'The Connecting Thread' is a story of a young woman convinced that she is being watched from afar by a mysterious admirer who repeatedly places advertisements about her in the 'I Saw You' section of her local newspaper. 'Summer Job' tells the experiences of an adolescent named Eric who is employed at a photo copying store for a summer. 'Pink Frosting' depicts a violent confrontation that takes place after a near-car accident occurs. 'Layover' shows a young man miss his flight and instead of returning home to people who assume he has caught his flight, wanders aimlessly for the whole day. This issue was published by Drawn and Quarterly in November 1995.

[edit] Collected Works

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Melissa Hung (Oct 16, 2002). Geek Chic. East Bay Express. Retrieved on 2006-09-17.

[edit] External links