Artist Inspo #9
Adrian Tomine
Ah, deep January.
Right when the seasonal depression really slaps your butt and honks your nose.
Hopefully this isn’t the case for you, kind reader.
But if it is— I hope this month’s Artist Inspo is able to give you a ‘lil artsy emotional boost!
Today we are snuggling up with one of modern cartooning’s greats:
Adrian Tomine
I wish I could say I remembered when I first discovered Adrian’s work, but I have something closer to a hazy memory— A general period of time when he first entered my consciousness.
I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area and was still new to the world of comics.
I was regularly visiting local bookshops like Pegasus Books and The Escapist Comic Bookstore in search of inspiration (and also to sell my zines).
Around this time I stumbled upon Tomine’s comic series “Optic Nerve”.
Optic Nerve is a collection of mini-comics Tomine wrote, drew, and self-published beginning back in 1991.
Today it is a collection of 14 stand-alone mini-comics published by Drawn & Quarterly running from 1995-2015.
…I’m still holding out for a surprise Issue #15…
(A girl can dream)
The series offers a collection of short stories with varied characters— many of whom lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, much like Tomine himself did at the time.
And me too, I also lived in the Bay Area. *Desperately tries to associate with Adrian*
Some of the mini-comics were crafted into longer form stories and published into full graphic novels, such as Shortcomings, which was released just last year!
Among Tomine’s offensively vast accomplishments are his masterful New Yorker covers, which are always a favorite of mine.
In 2020 Adrian published his most recent graphic novel and memoir, “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist”
(Ouch, my feelings.)
We all know I bought this immediately— AND I’D DO IT AGAIN, TOO!
The Comics Journal refers to Loneliness as:
“…adopt[ing] the character of autobiography, it is predominantly a comedy of middle-class neurosis, set in the world of 'acclaimed' but culturally marginal art.”
Which is enough angsty buzzwords to pique my middle-aged emo heart!
I personally own about half of the Optic Nerve series and they are some of the very few single issue comics that I keep in cellophane, stashed away in a hoarders drawer like “Comic Book Guy” from The Simpsons.
I can just feel my goatee growing in whenever I take them out to ogle at their glory.
Comments (Let’s Chat!):
Were you previously familiar with Adrian Tomine’s work?
Do you have any interest in watching his upcoming film, “Shortcomings”?
I sure do!
Do you ever feel the pull to NYC or know people who have left you for its sexy, cosmopolitan lure?
Should I move to NYC?
JK, I can’t imagine being able to afford to sadly.
Someone fund me $1 million dollars please.
Listening to:
nope never heard of him you his agent? hahah love his new yorker covers and will buy that book as gift for someone sometime btw read a story online in that mag and wonder if you saw riotously funny cartoon of a guy at base of hill rolling a rock up sisyphus-like saying to other guy something about "my dad had this job for eternity and made enough to put a down payment on a new house"
then i continued with the essay by julie someone and it was gooid and i'd heard about it from of course substack you need to do a cartoon about substack