The Complete Eightball 1-18: Issues 1-18

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Even though most if not all of the work has been collected in various editions over the years, the earliest issue of Eightball I've ever owned is 19, the first of three issues dedicated entirely to 'David Boring'. These speculations are usually gloomy — but absurdly so. In Clowes' future, gender ambiguity will become so mainstream, regular guys will wear Doris Day wigs while watching sports bloopers. "There will be nostalgia for the nostalgia of previous generations" — which is actually one facet of The Complete Eightball's appeal. As for trends, "teenage boys will adopt the 'balding, paunchy, fortyish businessman' look."

Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Devil Doll, The Laffin' Spittin' Man, Young Dan Pussey, What is the Most Important Invention of the Twentieth Century? Clowes offset cynicism with sympathy as he cast an outsider's eye on members of society some might classify as 'the dregs.' As the anthology developed, Clowes proved himself a master of the short story in comics form...--Jake AustenThis is a masterwork in its ability to stay with stories, telling them over years, or simply telling a fantastic story that touches on something in the reader's core. The stories within vary so much there's bound to be a gem in here that will capture your imagination.--David Brooke Once you finish your current project—the one you said you didn’t want to discuss—is there anything you’re looking forward to doing? Do you have some wish like, “I want to go play the kazoo in a band,” for example? With that criticism aside, Clowes is a master of the comics form. His art is astounding and somehow gets better throughout the collection. I also think his plots are mundane in the best way possible (aside from Velvet Glove which I’ll get to). Ghost World is the pinnacle of Clowes in this period of his career. It’s mundane and relatable in the best way possible with great humor and a dash of angst that makes it such a joy to read. The more introspective elements of Ghost World evoke a self reflection not many other pieces of media incite in me. Ghost World hits its demographic where it hurts which is 100% it’s intention. It displays growing up and not knowing what to do with yourself better than any other piece of art. Ghost World captures that weird feeling after high school where you realize to become your own person you need to shed what other people think about you, you need to get rid of some things that make you happy too. It always depresses me to see the stuff that hipsters have on display in their apartments," he broods, surveying a collection of kitschy toys. "It always seems so childish and unoriginal, but it's really not much different from my stuff." He might as well be talking about psychic baggage. Clowes is as hard on himself as he is on everyone around him — or most people around him. The exceptions are bullies and people who buy into the American consumerist mythos.

Clay lodges across the street from his quarry: Interesting Productions, the secretive entity behind the tawdry film. Through binoculars, he spies a small, pipe-smoking girl at a desk, perpetually writing. (Going through her trash, he later discovers she’s simply drawing the same picture of a horse head, over and over.) When he gets inside, his fate is sealed. When you created the stories serialized in “Eightball”—such as “Velvet Glove” or “Ghost World”—did you intend then for them to be short pieces, or did you have a sense they could continue into a longer narrative?

Comics] are in a sense the ultimate domain of the artist who seeks to wield absolute control over his imagery. Novels are the work of one individual but they require visual collaboration on the part of the reader. Film is by its nature a collaborative endeavor… . Comics offer the creator a chance to control the specifics of his own world in both abstract and literal terms. Impressive later works like “Caricature” and “Gynecology” distill the earlier misanthropy into compulsively readable noir-tinged narratives. They have the meandering magic of a Cheever story like “The Country Husband” or “The Day the Pig Fell into the Well”: populated with curious characters who enter and exit without fanfare, told in a voice bursting with regret yet also ecstatic with the sheer talent expended in the telling. Great art, great writing, inventive stories, and very disturbing nightmares... Do I need to describe the indescribable to you? Suffice to say his stories have everything you could possibly want from comic books and a lot of things you don't. So much misanthropic joy! ...I can't imagine what sitting down with all of those issues compiled into one book could do to your brain... probably good things. If you like surrealism, humor, self-hatred, and living in the world with nothing making sense, then this is the book for you! If you don't like those things, you might like it even more.--Sonia Harris 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. I wavered between 4 and 5 stars for this one. Much of it IS 5 star material (especially the perfectly surreal and creepy Velvet Glove), but a lot of the satire in the shorter strips haven’t aged well, at least for me. Some of the humor just comes across as overly self righteous and mean-spirited, which I suppose is more digestible when you’re reading one issue every few months or so. But it becomes a bit exhausting when consuming the entire run in a short span of time. Still, this is essential for any fan of 80s/90s Clowes. And it was cool seeing his art style and unique brand of cynicism slowly evolve, as was seeing the occasional famous name (in the indie comics world, anyway) like Crumb and Woodring in the letters sections.

In the interview, Clowes recalls the arduous process of using Rubylith sheets to get the distinctive color effects for Ghost World. It was a bespoke technique he learned at Pratt, and so comically cumbersome that he muses, “I might as well have spent four years learning how to fix a cotton gin.” The grumbling in both cases is tongue in cheek, because the labors he undertook worked. The Comics Journal cover—a Möbius comic strip—is a witty master class in the art form’s seductive charm and narrative flexibility, and Ghost World is what Clowes will be remembered for.Daniel Clowes writes either the funniest sad comics or the saddest funny comics in the world.--Sam Thielman Edward Gorey devised suitably Victorian-sounding pseudonyms for his morbidly wry stories from the letters of his own name (Ogdred Weary, Regera Dowdy, et al.). Vladimir Nabokov inserted Vivian Darkbloom into some of his books for an enigmatic, anagrammatic cameo. For Ghost World, Daniel Clowes, a serial employer of pen names, rearranged himself, lending his most enduring and endearing heroine his letters. By the end of the book, Enid Coleslaw’s destiny is unclear, but she’s equipped with all the wisdom and love her creator has to offer. 7 4.