Shortcomings

I've been meaning to read Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine since it got all those good reviews about, oh I don't know, a year ago. I recently picked up the soft cover, & discovered I had read the first part of this story in an issue of Optic Nerve. I really dug this semi-autobiographical story of Ben Tanaka who has a beautiful Japanese girlfriend but can't help his wandering eye for white women. I'm not sure how much of Tomine's own tale is in here but the fact that Ben's story is so deadpan realistic tells me that it is walks the line of fiction/biography. While I am usually attracted to dynamic artwork, Tomine's art is wonderfully realistic & lends itself to the tone of the story perfectly. I really like how human this book is and find it frightening how much of ourselves we can see in these characters. I can definitely relate to Ben's 'the grass is always greener on the other side' attitude, & I am constantly amazed when cartoonists like Tomine have the balls to be so honest in their art for the world to see. Shortcomings is GREAT, & I will be buying all things Adrian Tomine in the future.