Twentieth Century Eightball (20th Century Eightball) [Paperback]

Daniel Clowes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2002

Trailing the success of the movie based on Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World (1997) comes this collection of shorter stories from his alternative comic book Eightball. Many of the pieces are tirades, albeit entertaining ones, about things Clowes despises (perhaps the comic should have been called Hateball). "On Sports" details his contempt for professional athletics, and "Art School Confidential" is an expose of pretentious, talentless poseurs. This approach is carried to its logical peak in "I Hate You Deeply," a litany of the "types" that annoy Clowes, from "fashion plates" to "crybabies, whiners, and sensitive people." Clowes puts his misanthropy in abeyance for slice-of-life stories in which he ruminates during a stroll around his neighborhood or fantasizes about his fellow passengers on a subway. Worthwhile enough, these earlier stories merely presage Clowes' far-more-impressive recent work in which cynicism is presented more subtly, leavened with sympathy, and voiced by well-developed characters. If these pieces lack the heft of Clowes' longer, more ambitious efforts, the best of them are still masterful miniatures.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Trailing the success of the movie based on Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World (1997) comes this collection of shorter stories from his alternative comic book Eightball. Many of the pieces are tirades, albeit entertaining ones, about things Clowes despises (perhaps the comic should have been called Hateball). "On Sports" details his contempt for professional athletics, and "Art School Confidential" is an expose of pretentious, talentless poseurs. This approach is carried to its logical peak in "I Hate You Deeply," a litany of the "types" that annoy Clowes, from "fashion plates" to "crybabies, whiners, and sensitive people." Clowes puts his misanthropy in abeyance for slice-of-life stories in which he ruminates during a stroll around his neighborhood or fantasizes about his fellow passengers on a subway. Worthwhile enough, these earlier stories merely presage Clowes' far-more-impressive recent work in which cynicism is presented more subtly, leavened with sympathy, and voiced by well-developed characters. If these pieces lack the heft of Clowes' longer, more ambitious efforts, the best of them are still masterful miniatures. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

A sometimes bleak, often hilarious collection. -- Book Magazine's "Best Graphic Novels of 2002," November/December 2002

For anyone who's looking for state of the art in comics and the cutting-edge of popular culture, this is the stuff. -- Booklist

So dense, thoughtful, and clever, that it's not a book you'll be able to finish in one sitting. -- Las Vegas City Life, 21 October 2002, Todd James Pierce

[Eightball is] the year's best regularly published comic book. -- Entertainment Weekly

[A] corrosively satirical vision of an America cracking apart...confirms Clowes as a worthy successor to the underground greats of the 1960s. -- Roger Sabin, author of Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels

[Clowes's] pictures are brilliant, but if he wanted to become just a writer, he could do it. -- Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560974362
• ISBN-13: 978-1560974369
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #417,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Product of a Sick and Warped Mind, January 6, 2003

By 

Interplanetary Funksmanship "Swift lippin', e... (Vanilla Suburbs, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twentieth Century Eightball (20th Century Eightball) (Paperback)

But, so was Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum." Only time will tell if his work will be included amongst such august company, but for the time being, Daniel Clowes stands at the top of the heap of today's comic book artists.

Twentieth Century Eightball is an omnibus, "best of" collection of his comic panels from his Fantagraphic comic book series "Eightball" which was issued semiannually from the late 1980s through the 1990s.

Clowes' rapist (pun intended) wit is in overdrive here, as he expounds on his endless lists of things he hates, often in the guise of such stand-ins as the now-classic Lloyd Llewellyn. "I Hate You Deeply" and "I Love You Tenderly" will have you howling like a banshee, as you follow Lloyd through one of his ranting diatribes against sports figures, corporate greed, hippy sellouts and lowest-common-denominators.

And that's basically the whole book: Thinly-veiled attacks on all the things that bother the idosyncratic Daniel Clowes. But, so what: They deserve bashing! My favourite targets of his ire were post-modernist talentless art school poseurs, violently agressive hippy burnout peaceniks, "hip" people, Chicagoan "Jim Belushi" types, dumb jocks and pretentious Americans such as I who use the British spelling of words (e.g., "colour" instead of "color"; "kerb" rather than "curb").

Some of the material is just too bizarre to describe here -- I don't want to give away the weirdness, so find out for yourself about "On Sports," "Pogeybait," "The Happy Fisherman" and other such sundry freakishness.

But this book also reveals a soft-spot in Clowes' heart, particularly in the short "Ugly Girls," in which he questions society's norms of "beauty." Though he doesn't use the name "Enid," the reader can tell that Clowes has long been entranced and obsessed with the raven-haired, bookish, bespectacled wallflower type. I agree: She *is* much more stunning than those trophy blondes.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great laugh, June 16, 2005

By 

Modern Art Snob (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twentieth Century Eightball (20th Century Eightball) (Paperback)

I think I laughed more out loud while I read this than I have with my previous Clowes. While the Clowes I've read in the past is dark and haunting themes (Ghost World and Like a Velvet Glove), this is a filling dose of dark humor and venting of frustrations.
I might have given it five stars, but I'm not such a scraps-o-stories kinda gal. Lots of the stories had good starts, and either no endings or abrupt drop-offs.
And also, if I was fiendish about the way that my TPB's look, as in for resale value and such, I might have had a heart attack the way Amazon sent it. It looked like it might have been lying on a garage floor for a couple of years before they tossed it in the carton. The other comic I ordered arrived in mint condition and plastic-wrapped, so I dunno what the deal is.
I love Clowes more every time I read a new one, and this is no exception!

3.0 out of 5 stars Perfect subject matter FOR A COMIC BOOK., December 8, 2011

By 

ManMadeNightmare - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twentieth Century Eightball (20th Century Eightball) (Paperback)

OK, so, it's true. Art school is loaded with its myriad of players. Everyone's there for their own reasons and for the most part no one genuinely likes their fellow students. The majority of the teachers are there to fight for fanatical allegiance student by student, but really, their work is tired and old, and handing out a degree to any art student who impresses the most faculty of this sort, surely is an oxymoron when learning to make and see art supercedes the hey day of dinosaur art school faculty. Not because they were never destined to be anything great, or because they never were anything great, but because the bonds they form with students are based on who enjoys their personal work the most and who is most likely to build the school's overall reputation, rather than who is genuinely most able to think and create in a constantly evolving manner. Every 21 year old considering art school on the graduate level, should know this before going. Art School Confidential addresses all of this, such that I imagine most art programs were built around this comic book, rather than vice versa. PROTIP: when your art school wants you to play the drunk uncle, run like hell and hire a private investigator. ;)