Twentieth Century Eightball
By Dan Clowes
Published by Fantagraphics Books
Clowes calls this collection of short humor strips "filler" and "bullshit," in a cartoon introduction, but the only bullshit is in dismissing this book of stories as some sort of slapdash cash-in juvenilia collection. Clowes is the master cartoonist behind such works as Ghost World and David Boring, but the work here is fully reallized, mature and brilliant, and the loving production and subtle colouring on many of the stories marks this as one of the strongest collections I've ever read.
Readers who read last year's Eightball #22 (which I reviewed about halfway down this page) will immediately appreciate the diverse art styles Clowes employs over the course of these tales. And as for the writing, while Clowes has certainly grown over the past decade, this group of stories includes genuinely brilliant gems such as Art School Confidential, On Sports and the Jack Chick parody Devil Doll. They all benefit from superior production quality -- extremely heavy paper and thoughtful use of colour on selected stories, each of which has a unique palette that enhances the work and deepens the reader's appreciation for the myriad of styles and stories.
This is a full-on blitz of the faux-hipster Clowes wallowing in his '50s stylizations, while skewering his targets with a scathing wit that most satirists could only hope for. "On Sports," manages to be both hilarious and convincing in its indictment of sports as a haven for repressed homosexuals, while "Ugly Girls" (my favourite story in the book) finds Clowes shredding American standards of beauty -- while revealing volumes about his own tastes. "Girls," in fact, is a sort of explanation for and distant cousin to Ghost World, and finally solves the mystery of why Enid is the one that wins our hearts every time. "Playful Obsession" sums up everything ridiculous about Harvey Comics while paradoxically creating a wistful nostalgia that had me aching for a stack of Ernie Colon-drawn Richie Rich comics.
Clowes is an artist who often creates variations on his favourite themes (hey, it worked for J.S. Bach) -- and those themes are in plentiful supply here. Perversion, deformity, contempt and mockery run like rivers through the book, and if you've ever liked any Clowes story, you'll find something of value in here.
There are few cartoonists who are able to so accurately depict the state of humankind. Twentieth Century Eightball puts Clowes in the same rarefied territory as R. Crumb, creating comedy so true it hurts and so funny you could weep. This material may all have been culled from old issues of a monthly comic book, but it's as timely as ever, and in this handsome new collection, it's indispensible reading that you'll come back to again and again. Grade: 5/5