Scenes from an Impending Marriage: a prenuptial memoir

When Adrian Tomine was asked by his wife-to-be to document the lead-up to their wedding in a comic book that would be given out as a party favour, he soon found himself with a fully-fledged graphic novel on his hands. This is perhaps the cutest of releases this year, with its collection of 2-3 page strips of different anecdotes planning the wedding.

We find out how Tomine and his wife audition some particularly bad DJs, fall out over whether to invite ex-lovers and how at the centre of the storm of craziness surrounding a marriage, it’s hard to keep a grip on why you’re putting yourself through the process in the first place.

Tomine’s Adrian is funny, sideways-looking and always looking for the lazy way out, while his fiancé is obsessed with getting the perfect day for as low a price as she can. Titans will thus clash. There is a slight crossover with themes Tomine explored in Shortcomings, to do with dual heritage, which are interesting. But the most focus of the book is the craziness around weddings, and while it is too honest and sometimes sarcastic about it all, it remains a devastatingly cute collection of vignettes.