Daniel Clowes

Daniel Clowes
Clowes at the 2010 Alternative Press Expo
Born	Daniel Gillespie Clowes (1961-04-14) April 14, 1961 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Cartoonist Screenwriter
Known for	Eightball (1989–present) Ghost World (1997)
Spouse(s)	Erika Clowes
Children	Charlie

Daniel Gillespie Clowes (born April 14, 1961) is an American cartoonist and screenwriter. Much of Clowes's work first appeared in his comic book Eightball, which anthologized self-contained serialized narratives. These stories have been collected and published as graphic novels, such as Ghost World (1997) and David Boring (2000). His comics in the 21st century have appeared as graphic novels without being serialized. With filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, Clowes adapted Ghost World into a 2001 film, and adapted another Eightball story into film in 2006, Art School Confidential.

Life and career

Clowes was born in Chicago, Illinois, to an auto mechanic mother and a furniture craftsman father.^[1] His mother was Jewish and his father was from a "reserved WASPish Pennsylvania" family.^[2][3] In 1979, Clowes finished high school at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York where he earned a BFA. From 1985 to 1989 he contributed both art and stories to Cracked magazine, working extensively on a feature called "The Uggly Family."

In 1985, Clowes wrote his first Lloyd Llewellyn story, which he sent to Fantagraphics' Gary Groth, and his work soon appeared in issue 13 of the Hernandez brothers' Love and Rockets. Lloyd Llewellyn became a comic book series; the six regular issues, published in 1986 and 1987, were followed by a special, The All-New Lloyd Llewellyn in Black and White, in 1988.

In 1989, Fantagraphics published the first issue of his periodic comic collection Eightball. Many of Clowes's serials in Eightball have been collected and released as graphic novels, garnering significant critical acclaim and mainstream sales. The first dozen or so issues of Eightball typically contained a number of short comedic stories featuring absurd characters such as Shamrock Squid and Grip Glutz, along with topical satires such as Art School Confidential. The first extended piece serialized in Eightball is Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron. Appearing in issues 1-10, this story features a complex, surrealistic storyline. Later issues have tended to focus on longer narratives, however. Ghost World was released as a collection in 1997 after being serialized in Eightball (issues 11-18). It was adapted by Clowes and Zwigoff into a full-length feature film in 2001; both were nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay. Issues 19-21 serialized David Boring, which was released as a graphic novel by Pantheon Books.

The last two issues of Eightball, (nos. 22 and 23, "Ice Haven" [2001] and "The Death-Ray" [2004]), were each conceived as an artistically ambitious and self-contained work in an oversized, all-color format. Ice Haven was released in June 2005 by Pantheon in a revised and reformatted hardcover edition.

On September 16, 2007, The New York Times Magazine published the first installment of Mister Wonderful, a serialized graphic novel by Clowes. Clowes described the novel as a "romance";^[4] it ran for 20 installments, until mid-January 2008.^[5][6] Clowes's most recent graphic novel, Wilson, which did not appear in Eightball, was published by Drawn & Quarterly in May 2010.^[7]

Clowes lives in Oakland, California, with his wife Erika and son Charlie. In 2006, after a prolonged health crisis,^[8] Clowes underwent open-heart surgery. His latest graphic novel is a collection of his Mister Wonderful strip featuring added content specific to the standalone release of the story.^[9][10]

Cultural context

Clowes's most famous work is associated with the late 1980s and 1990s, a transformational time for alternative comics. Clowes's work was an important part of the explosion in the popularity of this genre and the newfound respect it garnered from critics and academics. Ghost World was among the earliest "literary" comics to be marketed and sold through conventional book stores as a graphic novel (this despite the fact that Clowes has been critical of the term "graphic novel"). His most famous work also coincides temporally with the so-called Generation X, and the post-adolescent aimlessness identified with that movement has remained one of his signature themes. He has led the way for younger comic artists like Adrian Tomine and Craig Thompson who tend to focus on post-adolescent characters and their conflicts. Like his contemporary David Lynch, Clowes is famous for mixing elements of kitsch and the grotesque in his comics, drawn in particular from 1960s pop culture, Mad, and the San Francisco underground comics scene of that era. This juxtaposition of superficial kitsch and horrific subject matter has since become something of a zeitgeist in much visual art, independent film and underground comics themselves.

Awards

His work in comics has won him a good deal of recognition, including a nomination for the Comics Buyer's Guide Award for Favorite Writer in 1999. He has won numerous Harvey Awards, including Best Writer in 1997 and 2005, Best Cartoonist in 2002, and Best Single Issue or Story in 1990, 1991, 1998 and 2005. He won the 2011 PEN Award for Graphic Literature.^[11]

Exhibitions

After group shows, he had a 2003 solo show at the Richard Heller Gallery (Los Angeles). In 2012, Susan Miller curated his first museum retrospective, Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes at the Oakland Museum of California. It features 100 works, including original ink drawings and gouaches for his cartoons, books and The New Yorker covers. The show will later be mounted at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery (Washington DC) and the Wexner Center (Columbus, Ohio), possibly continuing on to Europe and Asia.^[12]

Screenwriting

Clowes has written two movies based on his comic works, Ghost World and Art School Confidential, both of which were directed by Terry Zwigoff. He has begun work on three proposed film projects.

Ghost World (2001)

Set in a nondescript American town, Ghost World follows the misadventures of two best friends, Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) who detest their high school classmates and delight in mocking others. After graduation they plan on moving in together and avoiding college but instead begin to grow apart as adult alienation takes its toll. The two play a prank on a geeky, old record collector (Steve Buscemi), who quickly becomes Enid's unlikely friend and confidante as her relationship with Rebecca deteriorates.

The movie was nominated for a host of awards,^[13] most notably Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2002 Academy Awards.

Art School Confidential (2006)

The movie is based very loosely on a short story of the same name that appeared in Eightball #7. Art School Confidential follows Jerome (Max Minghella), an art student who dreams of becoming the greatest artist in the world. The movie was not as well received as Ghost World and garnered many poor reviews.

The Death Ray

In the summer of 2004, Clowes released issue 23 of Eightball, a single-story issue entitled "The Death Ray." In July 2006, Clowes announced that he would be writing a script for The Death Ray, to be produced by Jack Black's Black and White Productions.^[14]

On December 1, a press release was sent by Drawn & Quarterly, which stated: "Motion-picture rights to The Death-Ray are in development with Jack Black’s Electric Dynamite Productions, with noted director Chris Milk attached to direct."

Drawn & Quarterly published The Death Ray as a hardcover graphic novel in October 2011.^[15]

According to a 2004 review in The Observer, The Death Ray, "with its allusions to US foreign policy and acute observations of teen ennui....displays a genuine affection for the comic form and an urge to deconstruct it" and "reads as a cautionary parable and an acidic rumination on the travails of adolescence."^[16]

Master of Space and Time (TBD)

Clowes and Michel Gondry have discussed collaborating on a film version of Master of Space and Time, a Rudy Rucker novel. Clowes would write the screenplay and Gondry would direct. This project has not advanced beyond the discussion stage.^[17]

Untitled Raiders adaptation project (TBD)

Clowes has been attached to write a screenplay based on the true story of three boys who made a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark over the course of 7 years. The project is currently untitled.^[18]

Plagiarism by Shia LaBeouf

In December 2013, Shia LaBeouf's critically acclaimed short film Howard Cantour.com became available online. Soon thereafter, those familiar with indie comics noticed its remarkable resemblance to Justin M. Damiano, a comic Clowes contributed to the 2008 charity anthology The Book of Other People.^[19] The short film was then removed by LaBeouf, who claimed that he was not "copying" Clowes, but rather was "inspired" by him and "got lost in the creative process." LaBeouf later issued several apologies on Twitter, writing, "In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation", and "I deeply regret the manner in which these events have unfolded and want @danielclowes to know that I have a great respect for his work." Clowes responded by saying "The first I ever heard of the film was this morning when someone sent me a link. I've never spoken to or met Mr. LaBeouf ... I actually can't imagine what was going through his mind."^[20]

Legal representatives of Clowes also sent a cease-and-desist letter to LaBeouf ^[21][22] concerning another tweet stating he intended to make a second film plagiarizing Clowes with photos of Patton Oswalt and Seth Rogen underneath, who criticized LaBeouf's behavior publicly.^[23]

Illustrations

• Clowes's artwork can be seen in the Ramones video for their Tom Waits cover "I Don't Want to Grow Up".
• He has illustrated over 20 record covers, including The Supersuckers album The Smoke of Hell and Everything Looks Better in the Dark^[24] by Frank French and Kevn Kinney.
• An OK Soda vending machine, with art by Clowes, appears in several shots in director Christopher Guest's 1997 mockumentary Waiting for Guffman.
• Clowes created the movie poster for the 1998 film Happiness (directed by Todd Solondz).
• Clowes's Eightball illustrations appeared on skateboard decks for Santa Cruz Skateboards in the early 1990s. One deck was reissued in black and white in 2006.^[25]
• Clowes drew the cover art for Encounter Briefs, a fictional comic book featured in the film Paul.^[26]
• Clowes drew the covers and designed the booklet art for the Criterion Collection's releases of Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss.

Selected works

Comic books

• Lloyd Llewellyn #1-#6 (1986–1987) and a special (1988)
• Eightball #1-#23. #23 was released in June 2004
• Wilson (2010). Wilson was Clowes's first graphic novel that had not been serialized before being presented in book form.

Collections and graphic novels

• #$@&!: The Official Lloyd Llewellyn Collection (Fantagraphics, 1989, ISBN 0-930193-90-3)
• Lout Rampage! (Fantagraphics, 1991, ISBN 978-1-56097-070-5) — Short stories from Eightball
• Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (Fantagraphics, 1993, ISBN 1-56097-116-9) — Eightball #1-#10
• Pussey!: The Complete Saga of Young Dan Pussey (Fantagraphics, 1995, ISBN 978-1-56097-183-2) — Eightball #1, #3, #4, #6, #8, #9, #12, #14
• Orgy Bound (Fantagraphics, 1996, ISBN 978-1-56097-302-7) — Short stories from Eightball
• Ghost World (Fantagraphics, 1997, ISBN 1-56097-427-3) — Eightball #11-#18
• Caricature (Fantagraphics, 1998, ISBN 978-1-56097-329-4) — Compilation of several Eightball short stories and one story ("Green Eyeliner") that appeared in Esquire
• David Boring (Pantheon Books, 2000, ISBN 978-0-375-40692-8) — Eightball #19-#21
• Twentieth Century Eightball (Fantagraphics, 2002, ISBN 978-1-56097-436-9) — Compilation of several Eightball short stories
• Ice Haven (Pantheon, 2005, ISBN 978-0-375-42332-1) — Reformatted and expanded version of the experimental, multi-layered narrative in Eightball #22
• Wilson (Drawn and Quarterly, 2010, ISBN 978-1-77046-007-2)
• Mister Wonderful: A Love Story (Pantheon Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-307-37813-2)
• The Death-Ray (Drawn and Quarterly, 2011, ISBN 978-1-77046-051-5) — Eightball #23
• The Complete Eightball 1-18 (Fantagraphics, 2014, ISBN 978-1-60699-757-4) — To mark the 25th Anniversary of Eightball

Other appearances

• "Justin M. Damiano" in The Book of Other People (2008)

Movies

• Ghost World (2001)
• Art School Confidential (2006)

Miscellaneous

• Eightball postcards
• Ghost World: A Screenplay
• Dan DeBono's Indy - created original cover and interviewed
• Cracked – recurring strip, "The UGGLY Family", in the mid-1980s
• National Lampoon
• Little Enid doll
• Enid & Rebecca Cloth Dolls
• Enid Hi-Fashion Glamour Doll
• Pogeybait Doll
• "Boredom" – a mock board game
• Santa Cruz Skateboards – Corey O'Brien board 1991
• The New Yorker cover,^[27] May 24, 2010

Commercial work

• OK Soda – Clowes was one of the main illustrators for OK Soda cans and print materials, along with fellow Fantagraphics artist Charles Burns.^[28]

References

External links

• Daniel Clowes Bibliography: The most detailed site on the web for information on Clowes and his work by Ken Parille
• Daniel Clowes at Fantagraphics: The publisher's page with biography.
• Daniel Clowes: Biography & discussion of different comics and characters
• Daniel Clowes on BBC Collective: Interview and Ice Haven screensaver
• Girls' world – The Guardian, November 3, 2001.
  • Interview with Clowes around the time of the release of Ghost World.
• 2011 radio interview at The Bat Segundo Show
• rcn.com Comic Book Awards Almanac
• McSweeney's: Daniel Clowes interviewed by Mike Sacks

v t e Daniel Clowes Comics Series Lloyd Llewellyn Eightball Graphic novels Pussey! Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron Ghost World David Boring Ice Haven Wilson Mister Wonderful The Death Ray Collections Caricature Twentieth Century Eightball Films Ghost World Art School Confidential

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 85524209 LCCN: no95033553 ISNI: 0000 0001 2142 1697 GND: 119316587 SUDOC: 050192191 BNF: cb13518664g

Persondata
Name	Clowes, Daniel
Alternative names
Short description	Cartoonist
Date of birth	April 14, 1961
Place of birth	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Date of death
Place of death