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It feels a lot like a conventional novel, and thus has been well received by the mainstream press.

Shortcomings is the kind of comic book that tends to appeal to people who usually do not like comics. Its subtle and unsentimental approach and its lack of heroism clearly set it apart from your typical mainstream comic book, while its restraint, its realistic drawing style, and its bourgeois milieu ensure that it is not a good fit for the alternative comic scene either. Still, Shortcomings has qualities that are rare in American comics. Its pacing feels awkward or even off in places, and as a result the main character's sarcasm and mockery occasionally drags on to the point of becoming tiresome. This is not to say that Shortcomings is without shortcomings. But who says all protagonists have to be likable? Cartoonist Adrian Tomine never idealizes or trivializes Ben's attitudes and behaviors, yet manages to spark the reader's voyeuristic interest in his gradual fall from grace simply by making him believable, by fleshing him out with many well-observed quirks and frailties. Sure, Ben is snobbish, judgmental, dishonest, hypocritical, grumpy, sarcastic, offensive, neurotic, and the list goes on.

It looks like many reviewers dislike this book because they dislike its protagonist, which seems a bit unfair to me. I just wish he'd get someone else to write his stories. That said, I still enjoy his artwork it's Jaime Hernandez by way of Clowes by way of a clean modernist aesthetic. Tomine still hasn't grasped what makes a story engaging, and his stabs at subtext are enraging - you'll want to stab yourself the four hundredth time his characters hamfistedly refer to Ben's white woman fetish. Whiny, irresponsible hipsters go about their horrible and overwrought lives in an authentic way, but who really cares? Reading this is like being cornered in a coffee shop by a vague acquaintance who has an unpleasantly high opinion of himself that he unsuccessfully masks with phony self-deprecation, and all the time you're trying to think of excuses to leave.ĭaniel Clowes often writes this sort of thing, but the difference is that Clowes is not afraid to push boundaries and is actually quite funny. Unfortunately, as is the case with a lot of "indie" cartoonists, the narrative is boring and irritating. Adrian Tomine is a good artist who writes a genuine narrative.