Ma, Simon :: Comic Art

American Football Pitch/Cinema – Adrian Tomine

4 Comments - 195 Views - 2 Likes

Artwork Details

Title:	American Football Pitch/Cinema – Adrian Tomine
Artist:	Adrian Tomine (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Illustration
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	195
Likes on CAF:	2 3
Comments:	4
Added to Site:	5/31/2022
Comic Art Archive:

Description

I think my favourite comics creator is Daniel Clowes. I was lucky enough to have a front-row seat (close enough to reach out and touch him, although I didn’t) when he was interviewed in London during UKCAC ’97, and he came across as a really friendly guy. I mention this because it generally follows that if you like Dan Clowes then you will like Adrian Tomine, with whom he shares a similar “vibe”. One observation that Dan Clowes related in London was that when art directors or editors were unable or unwilling to hire him for illustrations or strips they would often turn to Adrian Tomine, who got the reputation for being known as “the nice [version of] Dan Clowes”. I have been following Adrian Tomine’s work since he started getting published by Drawn & Quarterly, and a new issue of Optic Nerve is still very much an event. I won this pair of drawings from Eddy Choi on eBay back in 2011. They depict a deserted cinema and a desolate American Football pitch. Adrian Tomine must be able to see nine years into the future.

Both my parents died within thirteen months of each other in the twenty-noughties. Even though this was not totally unexpected to some extent – they were not what you would call youngsters – and I was by that time a fully-grown adult I still found the experience … disorientating. They say that unless you can assimilate life-changing events like that at the time or as close to the point of origin as possible then by definition it can drag on, manifesting itself in “unusual” thoughts and behaviour. I am not sure if my choice of coping mechanism helped. Some people turn to drink, drugs, promiscuity, gambling, criminality. I tried one of those, and although I won’t say which I bet you can guess. However, the main one I used was searching on eBay well into the night and into the early hours of the morning. I would enter the names of some of my favourite comics artists and suffix this with “original”. I am not a psychologist but to understand what I was doing (unconsciously at the time) I don’t think you need to have a qualification in psychology; just to have listened to a few of Felix’s Comic Art podcasts in which he mentions that nostalgia is a driving factor in many original comic art purchases. For me there was an element of “retail therapy”, when I won, which was far from always the case (losing out on the title page of Elektra: Assassin 5, “Chastity", stung, but in comparison it was nothing). However, the main benefit I got was not even the artwork; it was the thrill of the pursuit and not the acquisition: firstly the planning and budgeting to see what I could afford, and then the heart-pounding excitement as the auction reaches its closing seconds, and finally the adrenaline rush of timing that last-second sniping bid. (Yes, I did win something in the final second of an auction beating the underbidder by one second. Been there, done that, did not need to do that again.) To indicate that the item was of secondary importance to this buzz I should let you know that I opened the cardboard envelope holding these two drawings during the earliest pandemic lockdown in the UK, even though I had won them nine years earlier. I have no recollection of bidding on them, winning them or even receiving them in the post but that must have happened. Because there wasn’t any accompanying packing note I even had to think about who the artist was until I vaguely recognised the style and the squiggly autograph which bore a slight resemblance to a pre-signed copy of one of AT’s books I had bought years earlier. So there are still a number of items dating from around that time in my and other people’s houses that even now I still have not opened. The ones I chose to open at the time were not predicated on their value, financially or aesthetically, or on what they meant to me. One of the artworks I won on eBay was listed by Scott Eder and up to that point it was the most I had spent on a page, and also for personal reasons it was very meaningful for me, but it still lies unopened. I hope one day to get around to finding it, opening it up and uploading it onto CAF. One thing stopping me is a mental block. The irony has not escaped me that things I bought over ten years ago to help me get over a “hump” (although it was the process of getting the item and not just the item itself) are the things that now I have difficulty opening because they transport me back to a bleak period. Heavy. Obviously, the window closed many years ago for leaving feedback for those won items on eBay, so I want to take this opportunity to apologise to Scott, Eddy, and all those other people who promptly and carefully packed comic art to send to me, for my not acknowledging receipt or leaving any feedback on their eBay account. I hope this goes some way as to explaining why that happened. I am sorry.

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About the Owner

	Simon Ma ( 2 ) Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	April 2013
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED KINGDOM
On CAF:	Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Comments on this Artwork

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Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

Posted on 6/1/2022

For me, I leave some art or toy packages unopened. I open them when I need a pick me up as a gift to myself. These serene drawings bring a calm and a break from normalcy where we take a pause to reaccess where we are in life.

Simon Ma
Member Since 2013

1 - Posted on 6/14/2022

Marcus Wai wrote:

Thank you for your suggestions. “Pick-me-up” – that is the term I was looking for. There was a glaring omission in my list of “coping strategies” which was creativity, and that can come in many forms. I tip my hat to you for the sheer volume of comments you leave, which are all relevant and specifically-tailored, and some of them show a high level of linguistic creativity – poetry.

Mark V
Member Since 2021

Posted on 6/1/2022

The art is typically excellent Tomine-clear and evocative. Your story is the centerpiece, though. Thanks for sharing how this piece connects with the journey you've been on.

Simon Ma
Member Since 2013

Posted on 6/14/2022

Mark V wrote:

The art is typically excellent Tomine-clear and evocative. Your story is the centerpiece, though. Thanks for sharing how this piece connects with the journey you've been on.

Thank you for your kind and sympathetic words which are put crisply and eloquently. I do appreciate them.

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