20th Century Eightball [Paperback]

Trailing the success of the movie based on Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World (1997) comes this collection of shorter stories from his alternative comic book Eightball. Many of the pieces are tirades, albeit entertaining ones, about things Clowes despises (perhaps the comic should have been called Hateball). "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 of the "types" that annoy Clowes, from "fashion plates" to "crybabies, whiners, and sensitive people." Clowes puts his misanthropy in abeyance for slice-of-life stories in which he ruminates during a stroll around his neighborhood or fantasizes about his fellow passengers on a subway. Worthwhile enough, these earlier stories merely presage Clowes' far-more-impressive recent work in which cynicism is presented more subtly, leavened with sympathy, and voiced by well-developed characters. If these pieces lack the heft of Clowes' longer, more ambitious efforts, the best of them are still masterful miniatures. Gordon Flagg
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For anyone who's looking for state of the art in comics and the cutting-edge of popular culture, this is the stuff. -- Booklist

[Eightball is] the year's best regularly published comic book. -- Entertainment Weekly

[A] corrosively satirical vision of an America cracking apart...confirms Clowes as a worthy successor to the underground greats of the 1960s. -- Roger Sabin, author of Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels

[Clowes's] pictures are brilliant, but if he wanted to become just a writer, he could do it. -- Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Trailing the success of the movie based on Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World (1997) comes this collection of shorter stories from his alternative comic book Eightball. Many of the pieces are tirades, albeit entertaining ones, about things Clowes despises (perhaps the comic should have been called Hateball). "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 of the "types" that annoy Clowes, from "fashion plates" to "crybabies, whiners, and sensitive people." Clowes puts his misanthropy in abeyance for slice-of-life stories in which he ruminates during a stroll around his neighborhood or fantasizes about his fellow passengers on a subway. Worthwhile enough, these earlier stories merely presage Clowes' far-more-impressive recent work in which cynicism is presented more subtly, leavened with sympathy, and voiced by well-developed characters. If these pieces lack the heft of Clowes' longer, more ambitious efforts, the best of them are still masterful miniatures.

Dan Clowes, a multi-Harvey, Eisner and Ignatz Award-winner, is a Chicago native living in Oakland, CA, with his wife Erika.