Comics / Comic Reviews / More Comics

Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine

By Leroy Douresseaux
January 2, 2008 - 13:38

Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

Cartoonist Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve) recently saw the publication of his first hardcover original graphic novel, Shortcomings.  This book, which mixes ethnic identity and racial politics with recreational sex and relationship dysfunction, continues Tomine’s outstanding work as an observer of contemporary relationships.

After his Asian-American (Japanese) girlfriend, Miko Hayashi, leaves San Francisco for an internship in New York City, Asian-American (Japanese) Ben Tanaka gets to exercise his lust for white women by going on actual dates (instead of being relegated to porno).  Ben’s predilection for the white goddess had been a point of contention between Ben and Miko.  Miko strongly suspected that Ben has a wandering eye for white women, and she made a point of telling him every chance she got, even going so far as to suggest that Ben is embarrassed about being Asian.  Of course, he saw it as no big deal, and claimed not to have a “type” when it came to being attracted to women.

There were more heated arguments and bitterness between the two, and now, Miko is in New York, and maybe something said (or unsaid) before she left is the reason she doesn’t return Ben’s phone calls.  So when fellow Asian-American (Korean immigrant) and San Francisco-to-NYC transplant Alice Kim summons Ben to New York, he’s in for a surprise, even though he shouldn’t be surprised.

Storytellers are supposed to make their characters likeable.  While this is true (to an extent), even when dealing with antagonists and bad guys, some storytellers excel at creating characters that are not likeable.  They are, however, eminently engaging, even being as interesting and fascinating as real people.  Adrian Tomine, revealed to be something of a prodigy when Drawn & Quarterly published Optic Nerve #1 in 1995, is a cartoonist and graphic novelist who creates rich, sparkling characters that seize readers’ imaginations even when annoying them.

In Shortcomings, Tomine has created such riveting characters, so obviously pathetic, but so surprisingly winning and ultimately human.  They are so like us that Tomine can be described as Shakespearean in his ability to create humanity in fiction.

Ben and Miko, always dissatisfied and yearning, inject pettiness into the dynamic of their relationship, fighting about things that are so often insignificant to the larger picture.  If nothing is ever enough, even love, can they last as a couple?  Socio-political arguments move to the fore, and suddenly deeper issues take a backseat.  It’s possible for Ben and Miko to seem less like a couple than “friends with benefits,” and the friendship might end over a trivial argument about why black men… ooops, I mean Asian men like white women.

It’s so easy to get disgusted with these two (and their friend, the bed-hopping Alice Kim), but Ben and the rest of the cast are so interesting; they cannot be ignored.  Tomine engages his readers, like an accomplished illusionist conning his audience into his staged reality.  Whether they are worthy of sympathy, disgust, or maybe even mild empathy, you gotta pay attention to Ben, Miko, and company.  So the secret is not likeable characters, but fascinating, remarkable figures that drag you into their world.

Brutal, honest, provocative, and funny, Adrian Tomine brings the reader into a minefield of human foibles – a place where conflict is built on mutual hypocrisies and double standards.  Shortcomings is simply a grand adventure into contemporary people.

A

 

 

 

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12