Posts Tagged “Dan Clowes”
John Seven • 22nd Jun 2010 • Comics • Dan Clowes, DC Comics, Drawn and Quarterly, Peter Bagge, Vertigo
Two alternative comic legends have returned this year with original graphic novels that show them to be not only in peak form, but also leading the pack in their work.
Peter Bagge leaves behind the territory that made him famous in books such as “Hate” in “Other Lives” from Vertigo — a modern satire on Internet communities and identity politics.
Freelance writer Vader Ryderbeck in is the midst of researching an article on people who make use of multiple identities online. By sheer chance, Ryderbeck overhears a guy try to pick up girls in a bar by selling himself as an anti-terrorism agent on leave — a confrontation with him leads Ryderbeck to realize he had gone to college with the fellow, Javy, and doubts he is what he says he is.
But he also seems like a good interview for the story — Ryderbeck suspects a lot of his spy talk is actually culled from his adventures hiding behind an online identity — and sets about getting the goods on Javy.
Thrown in this mix are Ivy, Ryderbeck’s marriage-minded Asian girlfriend, and Woodrow, another old college friend. As Ryderbeck pursues his story, Woodrow pursues Ivy through an online service called Second World, a parody of Second Life, where users fly around a virtual world via outrageous animated avatars.
As “Lord Burlington,” Woodrow takes Ivy on a destructive cyber spree even as his own life falls apart. Ivy, meanwhile, keeps her wild virtual life a secret from Ryderbeck even as he begins to spill revelations about his past to her — and to find out a number of truths he’s accepted for decades are beginning to crumble around him.
The obvious center of Bagge’s satire is the Internet, and his points about its use as a tool to seize control of your identity and prop yourself up to an insane ideal stolen from your silliest fantasies are well taken. Bagge doesn’t just leave it there — through the drama, he draws the line between new lies and old lies and makes clear the human compulsion to present yourself in a controlled manner to other people, whether it’s as immigrants changing their past or fan boys affecting sad power fantasies stolen from their favorite superhero.
Whatever the process, humans have a great capacity for misrepresentation and a desperate need to believe the fib being presented to them. In Bagge’s book, the lies eventually all bleed into reality, but the conclusion is not as pessimistic as the set-up. Despite the darkness, Bagge seems to think people can get past that and work things out in the end. It makes for a not only an intellectually sound satire, but also a rather sweet story.
Dan Clowes returns to the world of graphic novels with “Wilson,” from Drawn and Quarterly, after years of playing the Hollywood game and creating work for outlets such as The New York Times Sunday Magazine. In the world of graphic novels, he’s as acclaimed as it gets, and he deserves that praise. Angry, sarcastic, biting and smarter than most, Clowes is as sharp a social satirist as it comes — and more negatively funny than any other.
“Wilson” consists of a collection of full-page comic strips in which the titular character encounters other people in conversation or has a moment of deep reflection and then disarms any of those situations with a nasty gripe about it.
Beneath the hostile monologues, though, Wilson’s own story unfolds — an empty life of bitterness created, thanks to his own negative disposition, which is dangled a carrot promising a second chance. You already know Wilson won’t make that redemption work for him or anyone else involved.
“Wilson” provides Clowes the opportunity not only to show off his comic timing — still masterful after all the years — but also his grasp of humor art styles as appropriate to the specific joke being told. It also allows him a serious moment or two in which to sympathize with the devastation wrought from Wilson’s oblivious, nasty bravado, even as you’re thinking this guy got what he deserved.
“Wilson” is indeed hilarious reading, but it might function better as a desk calendar or a daily e-mail. Read in rapid succession, it’s like being pummeled by the world’s meanest man, living the universe’s saddest life. That’s not a big criticism if you’re up to the task — there’s a great beauty in its machine-gun negativity. As distilled through Clowes’ world view, it’s as artful as it is cringe-inducing.
Through the character of Wilson, Clowes has taken it upon himself to disarm almost any trite affectation that might come up between two people — it’s Clowes’ version of the emperor having no clothes, except here it’s pleasantries that have no depth. If you can take these terrorist acts against friendly interaction in succession, please do so — they’re hilarious. If you’re worried you might get beaten down by them, take them at a pace that will allow their meaning to sting without any serious injury. It’s an act of serious beauty, though, when Clowes is able to put this little monster in a moment in which you appreciate his candor.
The lesson here seems to be that even miserable jerks are people, too, and I can’t argue with that. There are plenty of stories of nice people being told every day, but thank goodness Clowes is there to capture the rest of us for posterity.
John Seven • 29th Dec 2009 • Comics • Adam Rapp, Antony Johnson, biography, Brian Azzarello, Charles Burns, Dan Clowes, Dan Zettwoch, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, George O'Connor, history, Holly Black, Jeff Smith, Justin Madson, Kazu Kibuishi, Kevin Huizenga, M.K. Perker, Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Matt Kindt, Oni Press, Pantheon, Peter Bagge, Phil Noto, Rick Geary, Ross Campbell, Russia, Scholastic, science fiction, Toon Books
Amulet 2: The Stonekeeper’s Curse - Kazu Kibuishi (Scholastic)
Creator Kibuishi certainly borrows from modern archetypes — Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in particular, as well as the films of Miyazake — but he is not content to let his own creations wallow in a bath of influences. Instead, his 
science fiction/fantasy epic for young readers leaps off the pages thanks to the natural quality of his storytelling — and having the story center around a cool girl character like Emily certainly helps. Kibuishi has so far skipped the lame supernatural fetishism and overwrought romance that taints too many young adult efforts, preferring story, character, and imagination in an exciting dance.
Ball Peen Hammer - Adam Rapp and George O’Connor (First Second Books)
Ball Peen Hammer moves from the dark allure of post-apocalyptic science fiction into an unrelentingly grim realm populated by unexpectedly noble characters — all rendered with an animated beauty by O’Connor’s hand. The stereotypes are turned inside out, victims of their own personal failures, as humans face a monumental and deadly challenge — and at the center is the sad and too easy decision to exploit children and in the process not only kill hope but create heaps that stand as sad reminders of moral failure. As depressing as it sounds, that’s what makes it worth recommending.
Batman/Doc Savage Special (DC)
Brian Azzarello pens an alluring vignette like something out of the ’70s Brave and the Bold, with strong stylized artwork by Phil Noto. He captures Batman in his younger days and dealing with the authority figures of the time — hence pulp fiction legend Doc Savage slumming in Gotham City as a diversion. In all truth, nothing much happens here — the adventure is basically dropped by the heroes — but this story mostly serves as a prelude for the upcoming First Wave comic, which will feature great DC Implosion characters from Justice Inc. and Rima the Jungle Girl, among others. The tone here is just right — serious but not overwrought, dark but not posturing — and it bodes well for the upcoming series.
Best American Comics 2009 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Charles Burns sets the tone for this year’s edition with a compelling essay that recounts his artistic and professional development as a journey through comic book collecting, where each tangent is a revelatory moment in his embrace of groundbreaking creativity. That he’s mirrored this volume’s selections in the same way is no accident. Easily one of the best in recent years, among the highlights are: Dan Zettwoch’s fictional history of a Church cartoonist’s newsletter; Peter Bagge’s comical slice of pre-Revolutionary America, and Dan Clowes’ attack on film critics and movie fetishists.
Breathers 0-4 (Just Mad Books)
If you want to read the best science fiction comic around, don’t look in any of the obvious places — Breathers is a self-published work by Wisconsin resident Justin Madson that concerns a gritty world of tomorrow that isn’t so far 
removed from today. In Madson’s scenario, the air we breathe has been infected with a virus for the last 40 years and people use stylish respiratory masks called “breathers” to stay alive. Madson weaves the tales of several people together in a series of shorter entries that create a wider tapestry of this future. Some are concerned with their own problems wrought from the situation, while others grapple with larger one — is the virus even real? Check it out at Madson’s website.
Cancer Vixen - Marisa Acocella Marchetto (Pantheon)
Suffering through breast cancer will get my sympathy — and my appreciation for bravery and chutzpah in the face of it — but it does not automatically mean I will think the graphic memoir of your experience is readable. In full disclosure, I couldn’t actually finish this book, so grating is the voice and narrative, and so amateurish and plain awful is the artwork. I read several reviews to make sure I wasn’t missing something, with the full intent of going back and reading the rest, but everything I encountered only cemented my reaction to this book. In contrast to what a good memoir should be, the narrative is manipulative rather than honest. Marchetto takes great pains to control our impression of her by compiling pages and pages of how successful and admired she is before we even get to the cancer. I understand that she does not want her readers to define her as the woman with cancer and have that image be our lasting impression, but then why bother to write a cancer memoir? The reader should be given a chance to discover her best qualities as she fights cancer, not have them dished out in an attempt to circumvent any impression we might have of her as a non-fabulous person with cancer. I bailed out at the diagnosis after having been pummeled by almost a hundred pages of constant bragging Also, I’m really tired of artists who who look as if they are relearning their entire craft starting with kindergarten level work when they go digital — it made an irritating story unbearable. This is a low point to the usually high standard of Pantheon’s output.
Ganges #3 (Fantagraphics)
Kevin Huizenga’s Every Man Glen Ganges faces a sleepless night and what unfolds is a mix of incoherent night rambling and time-passing mishap. Huizenga delivers a quiet tour de force that shows confident cartooning that thrills through its ease and craftsmanship, rather than stylizing the hell out of anything. His Ganges stories function as the American equivalent to Michel Rabagliati’s Paul stories, documenting a normal life with a sharp eye and a penchant for gentle revelation.
The Good Neighbors 2 - Holly Black and Ted Naifeh (Scholastic)
Spiderwyck co-creator Black continues her coming-of-age fairy-style saga as our heroine Rue starts to find her otherworldly family is beginning to take a toll on her friends, the resident Scooby Doo gang, and also that her mother isn’t as helpful as she’d hoped. Black’s first foray into the graphic novel format makes what is the now standard supernatural YA adventure more kinetic than most. and yet toned down in the histrionics and dramatics departments in such a way that grown-ups will have fun with it as well as teens. I confess that I’ll be glad when the supernatural wave in teen fiction dies down and a more open field of subject matter exists again — and also the standard plot of a kid hits a certain age and discovers he/she is secretly a wizard/vampire/fairy/spy/whatever becomes less overused — but Good Neighbors is at least agreeable in its use of these newly-minted chestnuts.
Insomnia Café - M.K. Perker (Dark Horse)
It isn’t a perfect work, but Turkish artist M.K. Perker’s stylized surrealist suspense tale — his American writing debut — 
has a lot to recommend it. Kolinsky is an expert on rare books whose shady past sends him on a downward plunge in the world, sleepless and at a job he hates. When he becomes involved with a coffee shop girl, he gets the opportunity to hide from his problems even as they snowball without his attendance. All is not as it necessarily seems, though, and Perker investigates the manifestations of that very concept from the eccentric to the unhinged. Perker is definitely one to watch.
Little Mouse Gets Ready - Jeff Smith (Toon Books)
If you’ve never considered that a children’s book about a mouse getting dressed would charm you into giddy happiness, you might want to pick this up. Combining the sweetness of old style Golden Books with a modern twist of a punchline, Smith has crafted a fun and funny little sequential picture book here — and Toon Books never disappoints, anyhow.
Skin Deep - Charles Burns (Fantagraphics)
Charles Burns offers a glimpse of what might happen if EC Comics existed today with three tales of intrigue and absurdity in this softcover reissue from the 2001 series collecting his early work. A master of the unearthly atmosphere — David Lynch has nothing on him — Burns unleashes tales of a man transplanted with a dog’s heart, a failing marriage with an alarming secret, and, best of all, an evangelist’s son’s encounter with God and his path to millions because of it. At once cautionary, creepy and curious, Burns is consistently one of comics’ deepest thinkers.
3 Story - Matt Kindt (Dark Horse)
In this somber and beautifully realized tale, Matt Kindt recounts the life of a real giant as seen through the eyes of the three women most important to him — his mother, his wife and his daughter. It’s Citizen Kane meets Gulliver’s Travels. As with Super Spy, Kindt’s styles are multiple and thoroughly accomplished, as is the depth of the biography that measures the perception of a man by the opposite sex. It is an area of mystery where expectations can outgrow and overtake the self that lurks within. In this book, Kindt comes up with a protagonist who is truly as big as the author’s ideas.
Trotsky: A Graphic Biography - Rick Geary (Hill and Wang)
Geary, one of the best practitioners of the non-fiction comics form, tackles the life of Communist thinker and leader by examining his ideas at a time when such radical naivete seemed like just the answer to oppression. Though it’s hard to say that Trotsky comes off as likable, Gear isn’t afraid to present the harsher side of the man in a fight for his own principles and some level of government fairness towards ordinary human beings, even when it involves executions of peasants who refused to fight in the revolution. A person like Trotsky is unlikely to exist again — we’re less tolerant of intellectuals and anyone with foibles — but Geary does a fantastic job at bringing the era to life.
Wasteland Vol 5 - Antony Johnson, Carla Speed McNeil, Joe Infurnari, Chuck BB, and Christopher Mitten (Oni Press)
The originally invigorating Wasteland series suffers another sidetracking setback — Vol. 4 with its foray into nomadic dog tribes was irritating enough. In that, the main characters and their stories were largely relegated to minor purposes, leaving them tied up for the duration of the story. In this volume, four flashback stories are presented, filling in details of the post apocalyptic word and leading up to the stories in the first volume. The problem is that no matter how well done these stories are — and they are extremely well realized, particularly with Mitten’s stunning color work on the final story — they are mostly superfluous. A nice time passer but I hope Johnson will get back to what made this series truly interesting. To that end, I highly recommend the first 3 volumes of the series if you haven’t read them already.
Wet Moon Vol. 5 by Ross Campbell (Oni Press)
Campbell’s ongoing series of graphic novels follows a loose group of industrial-goth art school students in a mysterious Southern swamp town. Based on his own experiences at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Campbell weaves a network of gossip, doubt, and confessions that creates a mystique of experience in those transition years between high school and adulthood. Campbell shows an uncanny respect and sympathy for every character who enters the story, which keeps it down to earth even as the strange feeling in the air begins to wrap mystery around the story in ways you can’t quite put your finger on, even as it careens into an wholly unexpected event.
Year of Loving Dangerously - Ted Rall (NBM)
Unapologetically frank memoir of the year Rall spent as — there is no delicate way to put this — a gigolo who traded his favors for a roof over his head and a bed. Not just one — multiple places of action and rest were his in 1980s New York City, and this maze of mattresses serves as a stellar travelogue to life at that place and time. If Rall comes off as a bit of a rogue, he’s a least one with an interesting tale to tell — a series of misfortunes that saw him kicked out of college and on the streets during one of the scariest times in NYC history to be a homeless person.
John Seven • 20th Mar 2009 • Book Articles, Comics • Basil Wolverton, Charles Burns, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Dann Zettwoch, Fantagraphics, Fletcher Hanks, Gilbert Hernandez, Harvey Pekar, Ivan Brunetti, Jack Cole, Jaime Hernandez, Jessica Abel, Joe Sacco, Kevin Huizenga, Kim Deitch, Robert Crumb, Seth, superheroes
Comic books have come a long way, but not as far as you think. On one hand, the creators who seized the medium in order to create literature comparable to any of its non-sequential cousins have garnered plenty of attention in the last decade. However, superheroes still exist and though companies try to grit them up, they’re still rather silly.
What is surprising, though, is that the superhero comics of yesteryear — we’re talking the pioneering first works from as far back as 1936 — hold much more in common with the literate graphic novels of today than their logical ancestors in the mainstream. Two new books give readers the opportunity to trace that path.
“Supermen” collects the earliest examples of lesser-known superhero comics from 1936 to 1941, the so-called first wave. No Superman or Batman here — instead, lost champions like Dr. Mystic, The Face and Sub-Zero seek to protect the Earth from bizarre villains bent on kidnapping, robbery, revolution, invasion and other efforts against the decent citizenry.
In pawing out the genre, there are areas of clunkiness that are charming — The Silver Streak lives in an apartment that anyone can visit, while The Comet’s house is easily found by criminals while he takes a snooze in his superhero get-up. The creators also have good humor revolving around the absurdity of the their chosen genre — suave man of mystery The Clock tries to calm a cop down after one-upping him, reminding him of his blood pressure.
Meanwhile, Marvelo — know as the Monarch of Magicians — starts off his adventure after the inconvenience of gangsters stealing a much-needed taxi from him. Marvelo retaliates by turning the crooks into pigs. (more…)
John Seven • 18th May 2006 • Film • Dan Clowes, Jim Broadbent, Sophia Myles, Terry Zwigoff
In “Art School Confidential,” director Terry Zwigoff and graphic novelist/screenwriter Daniel Clowes examine American creativity and celebrity. There are no real surprises to be had for anyone who has been paying attention, but it is filtered through a perceptive lens that accepts no sacred cows and just comes out and says what needs to be said about a shallow system at best and a cancer to the soul at worst.
Art school is merely a convenient fish bowl for the creative world at large and Clowes views that strata as populated by maudlin, derivative fools who have created their own self-indulgent hell. In fact, imagine a Hieronymus Bosch painting of the freshman class of a prestigious art school and that is pretty much what you will see in “Art School Confidential.”
Young artist Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) believes his talent will make him famous, but his entry into art school reveals another reality where his meticulous-though-derivative skill just angers the anything goes art students who hate everything beyond their own narrow, supposedly experimental views. The ins and outs of this world are shown to Jerome by Bardo (Joel David Moore), an art school drifter who navigates between the cracks and has it all figured out. Much like one of Scrooge’s ghosts, he leads Jerome on a journey of art careers past, present, and future, resulting in the loathsome circumstance of a failed, bitter, drunken artist (Jim Broadbent) whose bitterness may be destroying more than just his own soul.
Oppression is the central theme of art school. On the first day in school, the freshmen are told, “Only one in 100 of you will ever make a living as an artist.” Of course, these are the words of an older man who has not made his living as an artist and is surrounded by young people who are seeking early superstardom — and some of them may just get it. Even those young people who may become superstars feel oppressed by the slightest criticism, reactionary and opposed to the idea of art as anything that requires mastery of skill.
For Jerome, the brighter side is represented by Audrey (Sophia Myles), the daughter of a famous artist and a nude model who stands less as the perfect woman and more as the shining prize to a glittering victory in the art career sweepstakes. At the same time, there is a killer loose, strangling art students and providing a paranoid backdrop, as well as a convenient story arc that is eventually utilized as a plot device that drives the point home by the end. It assures us that there are no good guys here.
Though it’s obvious that Clowes didn’t have a good experience in art school — and that his attitude toward the gallery art world is far from friendly — he is not the Jim Broadbent character, far from it. Clowes walks the walk more than many, having made his name in the late 1980s in the alternative comic book world and parlaying his talent into not only screenwriting, but the world of best-selling graphic novels that have won him fans in both the art and literary worlds.
Clowes is a masterful illustrator and cartoonist — as well as writer — with an understanding of the grotesque within the normal. He can claim to be an out-of-the-box thinker in a world filled with people who want so badly to think beyond that deceptive cube. He realizes that the life of the artist often becomes so intertwined with the actual art being produced that skill — that is, art as discipline — is left out of the mix.
Zwigoff and Clowes examined similar issues in their grimly funny film “Ghost World,” but there the issue was a far more abstract one. There was something in the air that was making the world wrong, formless and insidious. “Art School Confid-ential” stands as a thematic sequel to that film and follows what happens when that shapeless villain begins to take form within the structures we create, like a parasite that uses fame to spread to the rest of us. At heart, “Art School Confidential” is a horror film, a tale of zombies who eat your soul and then sip espresso and ramble on about subtext.
