Shortcomings
From A.V. Club's write up on Adrian Tomine's new graphic novel Shortcomings:
"Though he's only 32, Adrian Tomine has been one of comics' premier cartoonists and storytellers for more than a decade, which is what makes Shortcomings (D&Q), his first stab at a graphic novel, so disappointing. The story of an Asian-American theater manager who loses his girlfriend because of his inescapable attraction to white girls sounds like something Tomine should readily connect with, but unlike his tightly constructed, purposefully untidy short stories, Shortcomings feels overextended and overexplained. The first chapter sets up the conflict well, raising issues of cultural expectation and racial identity politics, and exploring how both affect sexual desire. But the remaining two chapters merely repeat the themes of the first, adding some dead-end plot twists and shrill, tin-eared dialogue. Regardless, Shortcomings is beautifully drawn, and as uncompromising as Tomine's more elliptical work-if only because the characters remain hard to like from page one to page 100… C"
I think Tomine is very unfairly underrated. No one captures the look and sentiments of young, hip, indignant America as accurately as he does. I don't even think anyone comes close and that includes Daniel Clowes. Yet whenever I push his books onto other people they seem very iffy about him. It's never like my "holy shit I have to buy everything this guy has ever put out" it's just a "eh, I kind of liked it." So I won't bother telling you all how much I loved Shortcomings, but I will tell you it's one of the best portrayals of how guys and girls do stupi...you know what? Forget it: just read it yourself and tell me what you think.
"Though he's only 32, Adrian Tomine has been one of comics' premier cartoonists and storytellers for more than a decade, which is what makes Shortcomings (D&Q), his first stab at a graphic novel, so disappointing. The story of an Asian-American theater manager who loses his girlfriend because of his inescapable attraction to white girls sounds like something Tomine should readily connect with, but unlike his tightly constructed, purposefully untidy short stories, Shortcomings feels overextended and overexplained. The first chapter sets up the conflict well, raising issues of cultural expectation and racial identity politics, and exploring how both affect sexual desire. But the remaining two chapters merely repeat the themes of the first, adding some dead-end plot twists and shrill, tin-eared dialogue. Regardless, Shortcomings is beautifully drawn, and as uncompromising as Tomine's more elliptical work-if only because the characters remain hard to like from page one to page 100… C"
I think Tomine is very unfairly underrated. No one captures the look and sentiments of young, hip, indignant America as accurately as he does. I don't even think anyone comes close and that includes Daniel Clowes. Yet whenever I push his books onto other people they seem very iffy about him. It's never like my "holy shit I have to buy everything this guy has ever put out" it's just a "eh, I kind of liked it." So I won't bother telling you all how much I loved Shortcomings, but I will tell you it's one of the best portrayals of how guys and girls do stupi...you know what? Forget it: just read it yourself and tell me what you think.