Customer Reviews

Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I'm not sure what this story is about but it certainly held my attention. Its a nightmarish dreamscape with a stream of consciousness narrative. I've enjoyed watching Clowes evolve as an artist and a storyteller over the years. His artwork has become more sophisticated and less rigid. His stories are more complex and layered. And his characters are deeper and suffused with conflicted emotions/desires. "Like a Velvet Glove" seems like a bit of an experiment, a stage that he had to work through in order to elevate his storytelling. Still, its very compelling.

After reading some of Clowes's other works, I find the guy to have unique and yet powerful storytelling. I guess his stories strike me as odd, but rather than to let them dangle, he gets them across well enough, and his art compliments the prose perfectly--like every is matter-of-fact. Take it or leave it.

So reading this, I was slapped in the face. The opening chapter reminds me of David Boring (though this was written well before the other piece), because of the kind of obsession and suggestion of fetishes. Both of these are just build ups for the story (and I should really say stories, because this is a collection of work taken from Clowes's magazine, Eightball).

I would say it's like a man lost in a surreal world, and he's trying to act normal, and do the best he can. Utterly original characters. I don't want to spoil it, but they are wildly imaginative.

I didn't give it a 5, because it was not quite a masterpiece. Plus, some parts troubled me. I thought Clowes could have ironed them out with better explanation, but using the guise of surreal, you will never know if that is his intent.

Actually, of everything of his that I read, I like 20th Century 8ball collection. The variety and emotion is staggering, and he lets it all out.

Sometimes you find yourself living an unexpected life -- no longer sufficiently rooted (in people and places and things) to be able to exercise that faculty of constantly creating, 2 or 3 steps ahead of yourself, the road you're on and the days you inhabit, by virtue of pre-expectation. The world es exactly what you have always known it would be, and each step you have taken has only served to reinforce this... and then one day its all gone. And where do you live then, you? You live in the world, the unrooted, fleeting, ever-ambiguous world outside your head, and it is truly more strange and vivid than anything you ever imagined. And it has teeth...

This book will disturb your sleep for months. Tina, Foot-Foot, Clay, Laura the Dog, et al inhabit a neighboring counter-earth to the planet David Lynch hails from. Ther serial/chapter format, the mad accumulation of details and plot tangents, the little girl with the pipe... Creepy as hell. Harum Scarum indeed...

Wish everyone could have been there back when you had to wait 3-4 months between serial installments of this in Eightball. It was truly disturbing then.

Okay, this book was really hard for me to track down. I ordered it on amazon last year and it was out of stock and never shipped for months, so eventually I cancelled it. I finally got it not long ago from a comic shop.
I read the other reviews and I see what people mean. At first, I was confused. Then when I realized it was supposed to be bizarre and not make sense, I got into it. I liked it. The biggest complaint people seem to have is that it's not like "David Boring." I love his other books, and this one was good, but it is very different. It's very surreal and disturbing.
Seriously. I was extremely disturbed by some of the characters. My boyfriend asked me how it was and all I could say was "unsettling" and "bothersome" because it just makes you feel uncomfortable.
So yeah...be warned.

This story takes you to very strange places, but not so odd that you can't follow it. Forget the comparison to David Lynch. I didn't treat it as some kind of puzzle, I just had fun reading it. I want to read it again now.

the comparison is obvious. just watch 'the straight story' and 'mullholland drive'. as amazing as this book. :)

Some people seem to prefer "Ghost World," Clowe's big hit, to this, but I'm the opposite. I loved the film of Ghost World, but found the comic dull and flat. This story is something else, however. It's really sick, in a creative and disturbing kind of way. I found the sensibility here recalling to mind the best, weirdest scenes in Blue Velvet. Like that film, this story doesn't make a lot of sense and isn't believable, nor is there any deep message, but it is a great read and and wonderful dip into the purely grotesque and horrible!