I wanted to avoid doing what I thought people wanted me to do.
ADRIAN TOMINEI wanted to avoid doing what I thought people wanted me to do.
ADRIAN TOMINE“What you do for a living?” It used to be easier just to tell people that I was a magazine illustrator than try to explain that I did comics.
ADRIAN TOMINEUnderground and alternative comics existed in a vacuum for years, where money really wasn’t an issue.
ADRIAN TOMINEWhereas the graphic novel is now being held up as something to aspire to and as something that’s respectable for adults to read.
ADRIAN TOMINEEither thought balloons or narrations or some sort of showy action, then those thoughts and realizations never existed.
ADRIAN TOMINEI think there’s a lot of evolution that’s happened in intangible ways, in terms of how I think about the work or how I plan it out.
ADRIAN TOMINEBut my impression is that the main impediment to progress in that regard is the number of people who are choosing to make a go of it.
ADRIAN TOMINENo one would get into doing a black-and-white comic because they thought it might be a route to riches.
ADRIAN TOMINEI feel like if people are going to go to the effort to get a stamp and, you know, put it on an envelope that, you know, it’s a big effort these days. So I often write back.
ADRIAN TOMINEIt’s psychologically a weird experience to be so aware of the fact that the real time of your life is moving much faster than the fictional time you’re trying to depict.
ADRIAN TOMINEI think in terms of getting new artists who are not in that sort of stereotypical teenage boy demographic.
ADRIAN TOMINEJust in terms of being able to be a professional artist, but also it’s nice to not have to dread introductions.
ADRIAN TOMINEI sense a real difference in my work from the time I was younger and single and more involved in the world of music and going out to bars and all that.
ADRIAN TOMINEFor me, like, the more interesting a letter is I just get more excited and I know that this going to be great for my friends who are looking forward to reading that in my comic.
ADRIAN TOMINEI think, to its credit, this is one of the last forms of popular entertainment that I don’t sense to be discriminatory in any way.
ADRIAN TOMINEI think there’s this general hunger for greater diversity, where publishers are really excited about finding different voices than what has been done.
ADRIAN TOMINE