Clyde Fans: Book-1 (Bk.1) [Hardcover]

Seth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2004

A compelling look at the life of two electric fan salesman, both brothers, by master cartoonist Seth. Clyde Fans promises to be one of the major graphic novel achievements of recent years. Seth is fast becoming one of the most recognized talents in the field since Chris Ware. Book One of this trilogy focuses on the lives of two brothers and their fan manufacturing company. After one more disastrous attempt at selling, Simon returns to the office defeated and unsure of what he'll do next. Even after studying manuals on the art of selling, he still can't seem to clinch that final deal. In the eyes of his brother Abraham, he is a failure. Here, Seth brilliantly explores the complex and fascinating relationship of the two brothers behind Clyde Fans.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This quietly mesmerizing book contains no jazzy bursts of color or tricky layout, no costumed superheroes or villains, no car chases, not even a single gun. Yet its subject matter is of vital importance. Like Chris Ware and Harvey Pekar, Seth creates art out of the apparent banality of average life. Part one, set in 1997, is essentially a monologue in which elderly Abraham Matchcard describes how he became an effective salesman despite his unsociability, how his father ran a briefly successful company, and how baffled he was by his brother Simon's futile life. Very little "happens," but as the old man's thoughts drift, readers realize how seldom people recognize the shapes their lives are falling into. The book's second part, set in 1957, follows Simon on his desperately uncomfortable attempt at a sales trip. Again, nothing obviously significant happens, which is the point: even when someone recognizes decisions must be made, actually making them may feel too momentous to contemplate. The effect of this accumulation of non-events, depicted in absolutely convincing detail, fascinates. Seth works with a restricted palate (blue tints overlaying the simplified but realistic brushwork) printed on beige paper, which gives the book a unique, antique feel. The formal portraits of the main characters that frequently stare from the pages are echoed in the book's endpapers, which show the Matchcard brothers among their high school classmates. Seth implies each of those faces might conceal a private, mysterious universe. That thought is simultaneously disconcerting and wonderful, as is this book.
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From Booklist

A rambling monologue about the art of salesmanship, delivered by an elderly man puttering around his empty family home, may not seem the most promising material for a compelling graphic novel, and an account of that man's socially maladroit brother's embarrassingly futile attempts to launch a career as a salesman for the family electric-fan business seems nearly as dubious. In the masterful hands of cartoonist Seth, they become the stuff of quiet, desperate drama. The family saga is related through Abe's painful examination of his squandered life from the vantage point of 1997, and the depiction of an excruciating series of cold calls Simon makes in a small town in 1957. Both sequences are marked by skillfully rendered dialogue and elegant silent passages that demand that readers pay attention to Seth's simple yet suave drawings. Telling this kind of story is a departure for Seth, who is known for his navel-gazing autobiographical comics; here he turns outward with equal success, while he continues to delve deeply into his two constant themes: nostalgia and alienation. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 156 pages
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly; First Edition edition (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189659784X
• ISBN-13: 978-1896597843
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #939,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Quiet Lives, August 22, 2005

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Clyde Fans: Book-1 (Bk.1) (Hardcover)

Canadian graphic superstar Seth here collects issues 10-15 of his "Palookaville" comic book to tell the partial story of a pair of introverted Toronto brothers. The first half of the book is set in 1997, and is a rambling interior monologue by the older of the brothers, Abraham. The panels follow the elderly Abraham as he wanders through the downtown building that was the home and office for his family for the last fifty years. We see him getting dressed, making food, taking a bath, puttering around, checking the weather, and soforth while declaiming on the art of salesmanship and giving the history of the rise and fall of the family fan business and his own role in it. Most importantly, perhaps, he explains how he overcame his preference for solitude in order to operate in the "real" world, while his brother spent his whole life hiding from the world. The second part follows the younger brother Simon on his one attempt to brave the outside world, a spectacularly unsuccessful sales trip in 1957. Every encounter Simon has is one of negation and his lack of self-confidence feeds into a whirlpool of failure. There's not a lot that goes on over the course of the book, more the evocation of a sense of failure and unfulfilled lives. The art is beautifully printed in a mix of cyan and black on a natural color stock which greatly adds to the sense of wistfulness and nostalgia that permeates the story. However, like a well-crafted short story about a characters I can't identify with, the book didn't do much for me, although I can recognize its quality and potential to appeal to others.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Visually a triumph, September 20, 2004

By 

Waldo McSheepington "and his bowl of turds" (San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clyde Fans: Book-1 (Bk.1) (Hardcover)

This entire book is a work of art. It is meticulously created with care and beautiful attention to every simplified detail. Every page reeks of sadness and nostalgia. The lonely character of Simon becomes understood by his brother only after his death... though we're not sure exactly why in this first part of the story of Clyde Fans.

The narration by the character Abraham in the first half of this book is really the only gripe I have. He, as an old man, has such a keen awareness and understanding of all of his shortcomings and mistakes in life. He is completely self-aware, and makes it a point to tell you all the things I believe Seth could have told without words. Or at least without ones not so obvious. No one is that aware of themselves.

I hate to compare to Chris Ware - but I will anyway. The lonely character of Jimmy Corrigan never comes out and tells you he's pathetic, you gather it from his mannerisms, his conversations with others, his inner monologue. In "Clyde Fans" however, everything is spelled out. It leaves very little for the reader to interpret, and causes it to be a little cold and matter-of-fact, rather than the more moving novel it could have been.

Still, it is visually impeccable, and I will be buying the sequel.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Check out Clyde Fans, December 28, 2005

By 

B. Steinberg - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Clyde Fans: Book-1 (Bk.1) (Hardcover)

First off, Seth is a great artist. For true admirers of the craft of graphic novel illustration, Seth is one of the top people...but enough about Seth.

The story opens up with the main character Abraham Matchcard recounting his life as a salesman for his father's fan company, Clyde Fans. Seth takes us through this man's morning routine while introducing us to an involved landscape of his home, surrounding streets and long-since defunct company office/showroom and store room.

Some reviewers did not like this story-telling construct. but I felt that this narrative "monologue" was true to the life of the character. He was mostly a loner whose only interactions with people were more of a sales performance while he was still working but now it is just him. Now in his retirement, this person is most likely prone to thinking and even talking to himself.

The story takes a great turn with a flashback to the 50's with our main character's brother Simon, a very shy person to the point of being socially awkward. Again we are taken through a rich landscape of Canada's towns, people, fashion, architecture and style. Seth must be a 1950's buff because the detail is incredible.

We find Simon ultimately thrown to the sharks on his first sales trip, which he was begrudgingly sent on by his rather bullying brother. I was rooting for Simon the whole time; hoping for the miracle sale, the bagging of the elephant or some Tony Robbins style "walk on fire", life-transformation experience, that will some how overnight turn this guy into a successful salesman.

If this was a Hollywood story, like, say, Back to the Future, Simon would punch out Biff, win the heart of Marty's mom and become a successful author. But this is not Hollywood. Simon is who he is and he act accordingly.

I found this book particularly endearing as a person who has worked - at times successfully, at others unsuccessfully - in sales, and who has a salesman father of the same age as our characters.

I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it

B