Twentieth Century Eightball

Trailing the success of the movie based on Clowes' graphic novel GhostWorld (1997) comes this collection of shorter stories from his alternativecomic book Eightball. Many of the pieces are tirades, albeit entertainingones, about things Clowes despises (perhaps the comic should have been calledHateball). "On Sports" details his contempt for professional athletics,and "Art School Confidential" is an expose of pretentious, talentless poseurs.This approach is carried to its logical peak in "I Hate You Deeply," a litany ofthe "types" that annoy Clowes, from "fashion plates" to "crybabies, whiners, andsensitive people." Clowes puts his misanthropy in abeyance for slice-of-lifestories in which he ruminates during a stroll around his neighborhood orfantasizes about his fellow passengers on a subway. Worthwhile enough, theseearlier stories merely presage Clowes' far-more-impressive recent work in whichcynicism is presented more subtly, leavened with sympathy, and voiced bywell-developed characters. If these pieces lack the heft of Clowes' longer, moreambitious efforts, the best of them are still masterful miniatures.

This is a two-volume, slipcased facsimile edition of the Daniel Clowes comics anthology; it contains the original installments of Ghost World, the short that the film Art School Confidential was based on, and much more.

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.'

Trailing the success of the movie based on Clowes' graphic novel GhostWorld (1997) comes this collection of shorter stories from his alternativecomic book Eightball. Many of the pieces are tirades, albeit entertainingones, about things Clowes despises (perhaps the comic should have been calledHateball). "On Sports" details his contempt for professional athletics,and "Art School Confidential" is an expose of pretentious, talentless poseurs.This approach is carried to its logical peak in "I Hate You Deeply," a litany ofthe "types" that annoy Clowes, from "fashion plates" to "crybabies, whiners, andsensitive people." Clowes puts his misanthropy in abeyance for slice-of-lifestories in which he ruminates during a stroll around his neighborhood orfantasizes about his fellow passengers on a subway. Worthwhile enough, theseearlier stories merely presage Clowes' far-more-impressive recent work in whichcynicism is presented more subtly, leavened with sympathy, and voiced bywell-developed characters. If these pieces lack the heft of Clowes' longer, moreambitious efforts, the best of them are still masterful miniatures.

The author of Ghost World presents an offbeat tour of the sleepy Midwestern town of Ice Haven and its unusual inhabitants, including Random Wilder, the narrator and would-be poet laureate of the town; his arch-rival Ida Wentz; the lovelorn Violet Van der Plazt and Vida Wentz; Mr. and Mrs. Ames, a detective team; and others. Mature.

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and written by original author Daniel Clowes and director Terry Zwigoff, this screenplay re-imagines Clowes's universally lauded comic book as an exhilarating, expansive variant, while maintaining the hilarious melancholic tone of the source novella. Included is the original shooting script, with over thirty pages of material not used in the final film, along with a 16-page full-colour section featuring rare artwork, production drawings, photographs of the cast and crew, and annotations by the screenwriters.

This career overview of one of comics' greatest creators collects raw, un-retouched original pages from the very beginning of Daniel Clowes's career (1986's Lloyd Llewelyn) to his one-man anthology, Eightball, in which his groundbreaking graphic novel Ghost World was originally serialized. It follows his work into the 21st century, up to his 2016 graphic novel about time travel, Patience, which spent 20+ weeks on the New York Times Best-Seller list. This is a must-have book for students, fans, and collectors.