Adrian Tomine is not the same person as Ben Tanaka, the main character in his graphic novel, Shortcomings, so please don’t get all angry at him. Just because they’re both nebbishy, early 30s Japanese-American guys who are a little obsessed with their dealings with the opposite sex, doesn’t mean Tomine is anywhere near as cynical, uptight and petulant as Tanaka — at least as far as we can tell. The similarities between the two men have indeed led to some confusion for Tomine’s fans and critics, largely in the form of the author being accused of being a self-hating Asian. The problem, you see, is that Tanaka has a bit of a fetish for white chicks, and his Japanese girlfriend, Miko, can’t help but feel hurt when she notices his predilection.

Shortcomings is Tomine’s first long-form graphic novel, collected from three recent installments of his popular comic, Optic Nerve, which he started when he was still in high school. Not dissimilar from the style of Daniel Clowes, Tomine deals in personal relationships, realistic, witty dialog, and presents his simple stories in bold, clean and naturalistic illustrations. His work also regularly appears in The New Yorker.

Tomine took a few minutes to answer some of DCist’s questions about what it’s like to be out touring with a graphic novel, and how he approaches his work. He’s appearing tonight at Politics and Prose at 7 p.m.

How do you go about doing an in-store reading for a graphic novel? Do you actually read aloud, or do you show panels in a slideshow, or … ?

The whole concept of doing a “reading” in support of a comic is, I think, generally a bad idea, at least for someone like me. It ends up feeling like children’s story time at the library or something, with the cartoonist verbally describing what’s going on in each panel and then doing awkward, nervous recitations of the dialogue. As someone who’s been in the audience of events like that, I know it can be a bit cringe-inducing. So in lieu of that, I’ve put together a little slide show that’s more about the process of creating the comic, and then I take questions from the audience. I can’t guarantee that this alternative will be any less cringe-inducing, but the odds seem to be a bit better.