Adrian Tomine

Observation: The mood captured in Adrian Tomine's short stories in Sleepwalk tend to be depressing.

Question: What examples can be given to justify Tomine's style of writing?

Answer: Tomine narrates every part of his comics step-by-step. He follows Hayden White's narrative arc by including a beginning, middle, and end. Tomine does not give a definite conclusion to readers, but rather keeps us guessing at the possibilities of each story. Take Lunch Break for example, the mood is completely silent. We are introduced to the sound of the afternoon news channel, not a single word spoken. There are thirteen panels with no text. This woman lives in a house of utter loneliness and just the memory of her dead husband. Sound depressing? I think so. Many of the other short stories included in Sleepwalk deal with self-isolation, lack of closure and a sense of hopelessness. Whether not readers consider Tomine's stories as literary or pretentious is up to the individual.

Question: How do the panels drawn in Sleepwalk contribute to mood of Tomine's short stories?

Answer: One of the easiest ways to distinguish the art in Tomine's Sleepwalk is to compare it to Jimmy Corrigan. There is no color, Tomine keeps it simple with black-and-white. I think that Tomine chose not to include color because the main focus is supposed to be on the story. Color tends to enhance or distract the dialog in comics. The panels are all about the same size and shape. There is flow from panel to panel in Sleepwalk which makes it an easy read. In Understanding Comics, McCloud refers to comic readers being conditioned by other media and the "real time" of everyday life to expect a linear progression. A straight line from point A to point B makes this the perfect comic for a beginner.