Influences and Inspirations upon Tomine’s Work

After reading "Scenes" I started to ask myself: what inspired and influenced Adrian Tomine to become a graphic novelist?  I got curious about it and began looking into it, and I thought that I would share everything I found on the topic.

Adrian Tomine; creator of "Scenes"

In an interview I found, Tomine stated that before he gets started on a new comic, he does a lot of “pre-work” that eventually leads to a final published copy (Duncan, n.d.). Mostly, he mentions that it involves a lot of thinking (as it does with any work), and trying to come up with ideas by sketching them out; this eventually leads up to the creation of a story (Duncan, n.d.). Once the story has been set in his mind, he then goes to work on getting the story written down and organized before he converts the words into a comic format. Before the final draft is drawn and printed, Tomine creates the panels and pages on graph paper, drawing in stick figures and playing around with the dialogue he had previously created (Duncan, n.d.).

So then where does he get his ideas from?  From a young age, Tomine was into reading comic books. This eventually led to the comic that became a big influence upon his work – Love & Rockets by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez ("Comic creator", 2013).

Love & Rockets Cover Page

Love & Rockets was not the only comic that influenced Tomine’s work, however. In Scenes from an Impending Marriage there were definite signs of Charles Schulz, artist for Peanuts comics, which was an influencing factor behind Tomine’s work (Clough, 2011).

Excerpt from "Scenes"

Excerpt from Peanuts

Tomine’s series Optic Nerve is set in California, while his New York Drawings are set in New York. To gain inspiration to write these stories he uses the knowledge that he has already acquired about the cities, using his own personal experiences and then fictionalizing them. I find that it is definitely a lot easier to write (or in his case, draw) about the things that you are familiar with or already know, rather than try to come up with something completely new. I find that it is always hard to come up with new ideas from scratch rather than to expand on something that is already there.

Picture of Charles Schulz; creator of the
Peanuts comics

This is a link to an article in Time Magazine that gives an in-depth look into Charles Schulz’ life and his work creating the characters that we all love and know: Charlie Brown and Snoopy in Peanuts. I always loved reading Peanuts whenever I could and every Christmas, without fail I would remember watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and enjoying myself immensely. I found this to be quite the interesting read about the person behind these drawings and the life that he lived. Adrian Tomine caries on his legacy through his own comic drawings...