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You can read in an interview with Dan from the fine folks at The Onion here.Or an older one over at Tight Science right here. Here’s one over at Hermenaut, another one from Cracked Machine, and one from Salon. Hey, he did do a movie, you know. There are all kinds of interviews out there with him if you just know where to look for them.
How does he do it? Seriously, how does he manage to top himself with each and every issue of Eightball? I remember thinking that about 8 years ago, when #13 blew me away. Every one since then has been better than the one before it. Whatever it is he’s doing, I hope he doesn’t stop. This is a collection of the story from the past three issues of Eightball called David Boring. His best work to date and right up there on the groundbreaking scale with Palestine and Jimmy Corrigan, this is something that everyone on the planet should read.
Soon to be a major motion picture! Well, a motion picture, anyway. Clowes worked closely on the film with director Terry Zwigoff (of Crumb fame), so I have high hopes of it being a good flick. If you haven’t read the story yet, do me a favor. Wait until after you see the movie, then if you’re curious, order the book. Tell me which one you liked better. I’m running an informal poll here. Oh yeah, it’s the story of two teenage girls and their views of the world. They drift apart and neither can seem to stop it, or to care about it. I thought it was kind of disjointed when I read it, but that’s probably because I didn’t read it in collected form yet.
Collects some of his better shorts from Eightball. If you already bought the comics like me there’s probably no reason to get this, but if you haven’t and you wonder who this “Dan Clowes” guy is that you’re hearing so much about, this is as good a place as any to start to find out.
Best story of a comic book dork ever. If most of the people reading this read comics when you were a kid (a pretty safe bet, I’d think), then there’s probably going to be quite a bit of this you can relate to, like it or not.
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron
If Lloyd Llewelyn put Dan Clowes on the comic map, then this book was what made sure that he stayed there. Kind of a mess (by his own admission he had no idea how to end it), but still utterly surreal and fascinating. A relatively quick read but one that’ll stick with you for quite a while.
New Eightball out now! That’s all this “review” is really for, as how do you review somebody when you don’t have even the faintest hint of impartiality in your thoughts about their work? This book is $7, huge, and all about a man named Andy. Oh, and I found one (and only one) spelling mistake in here so, newsflash: Dan Clowes is human too!
