Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron

A completely redesigned issue of Daniel Clowes masterpiece of surrealistic and cinematic low-life drama which collects together all 10 chapters of Eightball's terrifying and fascinating journey into madness. As Clay Loudermilk attempts to unravel the mysteries behind a snuff film, he finds himself involved with an increasingly bizarre cast of characters. Clowes reputation as a graphic novel artist is renowned throughout the comic world, and he is set to reach a wider audience next year with the release of the film Ghost World, directed by Terry Zwigoff.

In honor of Frank’s 20th anniversary Fantagraphics is re-releasing the massive, long out of print Frank Book omnibus, which collected all the Frank material up to the mid-aughts, including several jaw-droppingly beautiful full-color stories, literally dozens of lushly-delineated black-and-white stories, and a treasure trove of covers and illustrations. The Frank Book also features an introduction by one of Frank’s biggest fans (himself a Frank, or almost): Francis Ford Coppola.

Patience is an indescribable psychedelic science-fiction love story, veering with uncanny precision from violent destruction to deeply personal tenderness in a way that is both quintessentially 'Clowesian', and utterly unique in the author's body of work. This 180-page, full-colour story affords Clowes the opportunity to draw some of the most exuberant and breathtaking pages of his life, and to tell his most suspenseful, surprising and affecting story yet. The story opens in 2012, when Jack Barlow returns home to find Patience, his pregnant girlfriend, murdered. We meet him next in 2029, still haunted by the murder. He hears of a guy who thinks he's invented a device that enables time travel. On the next page Jack is in 2006, watching Patience on her dates with boys. Is one of them the killer?

A central figure in the emergence of the graphic novel, Daniel Clowes has set the standard for literary cartooning. The Daniel Clowes Reader, a landmark critical compilation, introduces new readers to the cartoonist's award-winning comics and provides those familiar with Clowes new ways of appreciating his visual and literary achievement. Parille organises 10 Clowes narratives into three thematic sections and supplies each story with an introduction and annotations that will open up its complexities.

Hot on the heels of Clowes' phenomenal GHOST WORLD success, soon to be made into a film, CARICATURE is a collection of nine dramatic short stories culled from EIGHTBALL and ESQUIRE magazine. This is his first collection since GHOST WORLD. Clowes has been described as the most respected American cartoonist after R.Crumb'. A film based on GHOST WORLD will be released in 1999, directed by Terry Zwigoff and starring Christina Ricci.'

Ghose World tells of the adventures of Enid Coleslaw and Beck Doppelmeyer, two bored, supremely ironic teenage girls. They pass the time complaining about the guys they know and fantasising about strange men they see in the local diner. Clowes captures th

A cartoonist’s acclaimed take on the superhero genre—now in paperback. Teen outcast Andy is an orphaned nobody with only one friend, the obnoxious—but loyal—Louie. They roam school halls and city streets, invisible to everyone but bullies and tormentors, until the glorious day when Andy takes his first puff on a cigarette. That night he wakes, heart pounding, soaked in sweat, and finds himself suddenly overcome with the peculiar notion that he can do anything. Indeed, he can, and as he learns the extent of his new powers, he discovers a terrible and seductive gadget—a hideous compliment to his seething rage—that forever changes everything. The Death-Ray utilizes the classic staples of the superhero genre—origin, costume, ray gun, sidekick, fight scene—and reconfigures them in a story that is anything but morally simplistic. With subtle comedy, deft mastery, and an obvious affection for the bold pop-art exuberance of comic book design, Daniel Clowes delivers a contemporary meditation on the darkness of the human psyche. One of Clowes’s most beloved books, The Death-Ray is the winner of the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz Awards.

Lloyd's adventures swing and bop like a tiki orgy hosted by little green hipsters from outer space. 'With untrendy straight lines, Zip-a-tone shades, and sketchy backgrounds, Clowes's LLLL art recalls '50s advertising illos, or architectural drafts seen through a mild hallucinogenic scrim.'- The Village Voice