Twentieth Century Eightball
Full Title: Twentieth Century Eightball
Author / Editor: Daniel Clowes
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books, 2002
Review © Metapsychology Vol. 6, No. 43
Reviewer: Christian Perring, Ph.D.
This is a collection of short comic
book pieces from the last thirteen or so years by Daniel Clowes. They are in a mixture of styles, some in
color, others in just black and white.
Most of them are quirky ventings of Clowes’ feelings about people he
does not like or observations drawn from his experience: Art School
Confidential, I Hate You Deeply, Marooned on a Desert Island with the People on
the Subway, Chicago, Why I Hate Christians, Sexual Frustration, A Message to
the People of the Future, Ugly Girls, Paranoid, I Love You Tenderly, and My
Suicide are just some of the titles.
Unless one is already a committed fan of Clowes’ work – Ghost World
is his best-known work – one may find this collection pretty self-indulgent and
not to be read in one sitting, but best kept for occasional browsing. The book shows Clowes’ skill and readiness
to experiment in using different styles, and it contains some wonderful images. Clowes show his love of comics by his
parodies and pastiches; there’s great energy in these pieces, and fans of
modern alternative comics will have to acknowledge Clowes’ mastery of the form.
Link: Fantagraphics Books
Categories: Fiction, ArtAndPhotography