Nerves of Steel

I'm just sitting here alone all day, but my lips are moving because I'm saying dialogue out loud, and I'm making poses and expressions in mirrors and stuff to get those things worked out."

- Adrian Tomine on what shocking happenings
could greet those peering through his window

The first time I laid my eyes on one of Adrian Tomine’s illustrations, I was quite taken. I was a junior back then in college and was fervently bitten by the Wong Kar Wai bug. Googling Wong Kar Wai led me to stumble upon Tomine’s labor of love, a colored illustration of a scene straight from In the Mood for Love (One of the Top 5 All-Time Favorite Films of My Young, Impressionable Wanna-be Filmmaker Self, Back in the Day When Everything and Anything Was Possible and When Life’s Harsh Realities Didn’t Slap You Across the Face Yet, but that’s another story).

Tomine's portrayal of In the Mood for Love

In the Age of Google, a click of the mouse can lead you to open countless doors of so-called knowledge. So I made my way, banging open door after door, and my hunger for all things Tomine was briefly satiated. I say briefly because the truth sunk in, the probability of my owning any of Tomine’s titles was equal to the probability of me waking up blonde and blue-eyed the next day: It can happen, but not just yet. To make a boring story short, I made my way to the US of A, scoured the shelves of heaven a.k.a Barnes and Noble and snagged every Tomine title that my beady little eyes fell on: Summer Blonde and 32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics. And I was a happy camper.

Last year, Tomine came out with his most recent work to date, Shortcomings. What I love about Tomine’s work is his accurate portrayal of life in the real world. There are no super heroes, no super powers, no grown men prancing about in leotards and masks. But in my opinion, it's just as good as its brothers from the same medium. Tomine whips out his knife, cuts out a slice of life and uses that as a jumping off point to tell his stories about the bitterness and sweetness inherent in life. In all honesty, my love for Tomine's work really lies in his artwork. When you get the privilege of laying your eyes onto his colored illustrations, please be prepared to let out a gasp of amazement. His comics are usually drawn in black and white, but don't let the lack of color bore you. Tomine has such a firm grasp of the nuances in facial expressions that the emotions of his characters really do jump off the pages, and you can't help but mirror those feelings as well.

If you’re lucky enough, you can find Tomine’s work over at Fullybooked. But if you really want to make sure that you happily go home with a Tomine comic in your hands, trek on over to the lair of magical things, Sputnik in Cubao X.

"Missed Connection", Tomine also illustrates for The New Yorker

"Facebook"


"Lucky Alan"