At Skylight: Adrian Tomine presents Q&A w/ Elvis Mitchell

Everything you wanted to know about storytelling or Adrian Tomine but were too afraid to ask

“That would’ve been too easy and spontaneous for me, and I had to find a way to make everything more complicated.”

And yet for over thirty years, bestselling author, screenwriter, and New Yorker cover artist Adrian Tomine’s work has set the standard for contemporary storytelling. With Tomine, his readership has grown from the dedicated following of his comic-book series Optic Nerve to include a wider but still engaged, opinionated, and ever-inquiring public. And now, for the first time in print, Tomine responds to his readers directly, tackling their questions and comments with generosity, humor, and vulnerability.

Q&A is one part personal history, one part masterclass in crafting quality entertainment. With questions pulled from his time at the Substack Writers’ Residency, and with additional, new material, Q&A is an indispensable addition to the collections of eagle-eyed fans and aspiring artists, writers, and cartoonists alike.

Tomine answers questions about his preferred tools, his creative process, the ups and downs of adaptation, and perhaps most importantly—how to pronounce his last name. Illustrated with drafts, outtakes, and photos from the artist’s personal collection, this rare peek into the mind of a contemporary cartooning giant lays out the method to his meticulous brand of madness. The artist looks back on his career in response to queries from his—maybe adoring but mostly curious—public with his signature dry wit and unflinching, self-deprecating honesty.

Adrian Tomine was born in 1974 in Sacramento, California. He began self-publishing his comic book series Optic Nerve when he was sixteen, and in 1994 he received an offer to publish from Drawn & Quarterly. His comics have been anthologized in publications such as McSweeney’s, Best American Comics, and Best American Nonrequired Reading. Both his graphic novel Shortcomings and his memoir The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist were named New York Times Notable Books of the year. Since 1999, Tomine has been a regular contributor to the New Yorker. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughters.

Elvis Mitchell has been the host of KCRW's The Treatment since its creation in 1996. During that time, he has served as a film critic for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the New York Times, and he has been a special correspondent for interview magazines. He hosted the TV series "Elvis Goes There" on Epix, and "Elvis Goes There" for Turner Classic Movies. He won the NAACP Image Award for creating and producing "The Black List" documentaries for HBO. 

But his first love is public radio. For The Treatment, he's interviewed a guest list that includes Oprah Winfrey, Ralph Gilles, Chris Rock, Chloe Zhao, Sofia Coppola, Chrysler Chief Design Officer Ralph Gilles, playwright Tom Stoppardand, and fashion designer Thom Browne. The show's purview, to get the best conversations from some of the world's most inspiring creative talents, continues to drive him forward.