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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully woven tale AND meaningless shock horror in one!, February 5, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron (Paperback)
Worth it alone for the reactions I have gotten from people at school that I have shown this book to. But seriously, let's talk about the story... Velvet Glove starts off normally enough-Clay Loudermilk, with nothing better to do, goes into a B-movie theatre, where he steps in icky stuff on the floor, tries to look unapproachable for the other patrons, and wonders why there is a line forming in the men's room. So he's watching this movie and feeling all disgusted with himself, and then the second feature comes on, a movie he's never seen before, a movie of the same title as the story. In this movie, which features no nudity or sex but is somehow just as sickening, a masked woman in a bondage outfit appears to behead two other people in the movie, one of whom kinda looks like Hitler and dresses in baby clothes. Then the woman in the bondage outfit removes her mask and turns out to be--Clay's ex-lover. Clay's quest to find out what in the hell his old girlfriend was doing in that movie takes him on a surreal, psychotic voyage. On his way, he encounters a cult of nymphos bent on triggering the ultimate war of the sexes and an eccentric middle-age man who thinks a corporate logo holds the key to the origin of the universe. Love Clowes' character images. Very snazzy faces. He can draw some disturbing and ugly images, too. Had to note the art somewhere. Try to find this book or the issues of Eightball it is serialized in. It is worth the effort. If you do get the individual issues, be sure to get all of the first ten of Eightball so you get the complete story, because you need to down it all in one gulp. For the longest time you will plod through this book thinking something does not make sense or you'll wonder what that was doing in the story altogether. Don't go back trying to understand what you don't get right away. Just keep reading to the end where everything is neatly wrapped up more than you expected it to be, and be prepared for a kick in the head. But even at the end "makes sense" is a term used in the loosest way possible. If you want a realistic story, it's not here. This book ends nowhere near as normally as it began.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing, Beautiful, Irrational, Horrible, September 1, 2003
This review is from: Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron (Paperback)
I came to Daniel Clowes after reading the relatively straight-forward "Ghost World." What awaited me in this book was one of the most disturbing and terrifying pieces of literature I have ever read. Clowes has that rare ability to create a plot that may not connect on a conscious level, but makes a strange and beautiful sort of sense on a subconscious level. Clowes' world view is very dark, and very lonely, but through this terrifying landscape comes the comfort that someone else has experienced the loneliness and desolation that is par for the course of our modern world. But regardless of the thematics and eerie undercurrent, the situations and settings are so incredible, and the writing so fast-paced, that you can't help but become absorbed in the narrative. Like all great art, it works on multiple levels. Only one word of warning, though: this book could cause depression. It's not for the faint of heart, and I wouldn't reccommend reading it in a bad mood.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Frustrating., August 31, 2005
This review is from: Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron (Paperback)
I was a fan of Ghost World and David Boring. Daniel Clowes has a knack for putting real people in a world where everything is a bit askew. This book is older than the others and reviews lead me to believe it would be a bit more insane than the other books, but I had no idea...
We follow our rather dry hero, Clay, on a bizarre odyssey as he searches for his long lost lover after recognizing her in an obscene film. Typical Clowes' formula, but Clay's path is littered with feminist warmongers, dogs with no orifices, an admirer that strongly resembles a giant potato-fish hybrid, and some of the freakiest character designs you will ever see.
The problem is the mystery, the tension, the weirdness just builds and builds and builds and there seems to be so little relief from it. The payoff just isn't satisfying. The book gave me a headache. If you enjoy Clowes' art style, there's plenty to look at here, but story-wise, it was quite disappointing. If you're new to Daniel Clowes, I suggest trying his more accessible works first.
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