Since Adrian Tomine turned 16 his long road of creating and writing fictional autobiographical stories had begun. He knew what he was going to do with his life at that age, and was going to make good use of his talents. The fact that he was already publishing his own mini comic, Optic Nerve which was sold in local stores and mail order, was already a big accomplishment at the time ("Adrian Tomine", n.d.b). This is something I find to be remarkable; he was only in high school, but had already begun his lifetime career. In comparison I was nowhere near the position Tomine occupied at his age. I was still unaware of what I was going to be, and how I would make good use of my talents, for a bright future.
As years past, Adrian would continue to write about his life experiences and share them to the world through his publications. After doing more research I found that in 1994 (the year I was born), Tomine's Optic Nerve mini-comic became a regular comic book series for Drawn & Quarterly (D&Q). At the time, Adrian Tomine was only 20, which I find to be a very rare age for any writer to become successful ("Adrian Tomine", n.d.b). He plotted himself on the writer map early-on and through his success, he won the Harvey Award for "Best New Talent" in 1996 ("Adrian Tomine", n.d.a). His name and award is listed in a post I came across on the Comic Book Resources webpage. The post also includes many other graphic writers who won the same award over the years.
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| Excerpt from 32 Stories |
In 1995, 32 Stories was released, which was composed of Adrian's early comics based on fan favorites. Two years later Sleepwalk and Other Stories was released by D&Q which was composed of the first 4 issues from Optic Nerve. From what I gathered it continues to be the best-seller for the company ("Adrian Tomine", n.d.b). At the time Adrian Tomine was probably around 23, which I find to be a great accomplishment, as he is now 39 years old ("Adrian Tomine", n.d.a).
As the years went by, Tomine's work continued to show up in places including albums and magazines such as The New Yorker and Time. In 2002, Summer Blonde was released and won critical notice from The Los Angeles Time, among many others ("Adrian Tomine", n.d.b). In the same year he was nominated for Best Writer/Artist (also nominated for this in 2005) and Best Single issue for Optic Nerve as can be seen here ("2002 Will Eisner", n.d.). Though he had not won any of these awards, he was recognized for his work and still accomplished a great victory.
Among recent publications, Tomine has of course released Scenes from an Impending Marriage (2011) which exposes Tomine's preparation for his wedding and New York Drawings (2012), a story where two strangers in New York meet ("Adrian Tomine", n.d.a). Tomine goes further into detail about this publication and the considerations he has to make when writing, in the video below:
After watching the video I realized the details that Tomine and other writers have to consider when writing memoirs or any other kind of publication. They have to make sure to keep the essence of an autobiography but at the same time not make it evident that it's from their life-story. The video also shows how Tomine transitioned from being a immature teen to a responsible adult; as he grew up, so did his writings. From a liking of superhero comics, to the writing his own memoirs, fictional autobiographies, and comics, Adrian Tomine has put good use to his talents and has accomplished much over the years. His future writings show great promise but in the meantime, we can enjoy the great deal of publications he already has made, listed here.
I always impressed by those that put their talents to good use. Adrian Tomine has definitely had a successful career. I found the following article: How to get your comic book published
ReplyDeleteI think the 3 main points of the article are all things that Adrian Tomine did, he persisted, he had patience (with his art, maybe not with his other school studies, but I don't know about that) and he kept his work professional.
I'm not surprised that he was considered best new talent in 1996. His style was good, and he had interesting stories.
His art style has since then changed, and I'm not certain he's really added too much to the art world, as far as something new and interesting goes. There are other artists that have similar styles writing more interesting work, but I do think Tomine's has merit.