An Interview With Adrian Tomine
Unlike the superheroes of comic books, your characters are normal people that almost seem to walk from the street onto the page. Though they don't fly across the sky and save damsels in distress, do you identify a sense of heroism with your characters' struggles through everyday issues?
AT: I guess I live a fairly boring life, but I often think of the struggles that people go through on a daily basis as being heroic. There are a lot of people who have really hard pasts and have overcome a lot of obstacles to just be a normal person or to just get by, and that kind of struggle is rarely acknowledged. But in terms of the kinds of heroes we're used to seeing in comic books, I don't think anything in my stories is that clear-cut.
Who are your heroes? How do they influence your work?
AT: When I was growing up, I went from viewing the fictional characters in comic books as heroes to thinking of the comic book creators as heroes. There's a huge list of these people who have influenced my work, but I'd say that Charles Schulz, Jaime Hernandez, and Dan Clowes have probably had the biggest impact on what I do.
Do you have a fictional hero? Is he or she a character in a novel or a comic book hero?
AT: I like the fictional version of Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm because he makes me seem less annoying to my wife.
Unlike the superheroes of comic books, your characters are normal people that almost seem to walk from the street onto the page. Though they don't fly across the sky and save damsels in distress, do you identify a sense of heroism with your characters' struggles through everyday issues?
AT: I guess I live a fairly boring life, but I often think of the struggles that people go through on a daily basis as being heroic. There are a lot of people who have really hard pasts and have overcome a lot of obstacles to just be a normal person or to just get by, and that kind of struggle is rarely acknowledged. But in terms of the kinds of heroes we're used to seeing in comic books, I don't think anything in my stories is that clear-cut.
Who are your heroes? How do they influence your work?
AT: When I was growing up, I went from viewing the fictional characters in comic books as heroes to thinking of the comic book creators as heroes. There's a huge list of these people who have influenced my work, but I'd say that Charles Schulz, Jaime Hernandez, and Dan Clowes have probably had the biggest impact on what I do.
Do you have a fictional hero? Is he or she a character in a novel or a comic book hero?
AT: I like the fictional version of Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm because he makes me seem less annoying to my wife.