Eightball (comics)

"Eightball" is an alternative comic book series written and drawn by Daniel Clowes. The first issue was published by Fantagraphics Books in 1989, soon after the end of Clowes's previous comic series, "Lloyd Llewellyn". It has consistently been among the best-selling independently authored comics.

Early issues of "Eightball" featured a mixture of very short, often crudely humorous comics ("Zubrick and Pogeybait", "The Sensual Santa"), topical rants and satires ("Art School Confidential", "On Sports"), longer, more reflective self-contained stories ("Caricature", "Immortal Invisible"), and serialized works. The first extended story to be serialized in "Eightball" was "Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron", which ran in issues #1 through 10. "Glove" was followed by "Ghost World" (issues #11 through 18). Beginning with #19 each issue of "Eightball" has been devoted to a single storyline, as opposed to the more eclectic format of the earlier issues. Issues #19 through 21 serialized the graphic novel "David Boring", while issues #22 and 23 each consisted of a collection of short, fragmentary stories in diverse styles and formats that meshed into a unified narrative ("Ice Haven" and "The Death Ray", respectively). Also, the issues of "Eightball" beginning with #19 have been published in full color in a larger magazine-sized format.

"Eightball" #18 included a bound-in copy of Clowes's pamphlet/minicomic "Modern Cartoonist".

ingle Issues

{| class="wikitable"! style="width: 2em" | Issue #! style="width: 7em" | 1st Print Date! style="min-width: 28em; width: 40%" | Stories! style="max-width: 20em" | Notes
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1
Oct - 89
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Devil Doll, The Laffin' Spittin' Man, Young Dan Pussey, What is the Most Important Invention of the Twentieth Century?

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2
Feb - 90
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, The Truth, I Hate You Deeply (Lloyd Llewellyn, What Do You Think George Washington's Voice Sounded Like?

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3
Jun- 90
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, The Stroll, The Young Manhood of Dan Pussey, What Can Robots Do?

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4
Oct - 90
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, I Love You Tenderly (Lloyd Llewellyn), The Future, Dan Pussey's Masturbation Fantasy, Sexual Frustration, What Do You Do for a Cold?

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5
Oct - 90
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Just Another Day, Playful Obsession, Paranoid

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6
Jun - 91
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, The Dr. Infinity Story (Dan Pussey), Marooned

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7
Nov - 91
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Art School Confidential, Chicago

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8
Mar - 92
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Ugly Girls, Grist for the Mill, Dan Pussey Presents Komic Kollector's Korner, Nature Boy, Give it Up, My Suicide, Dialogues from Duplex Planet
'Ugly Girls' contains a prototype of Enid from Ghost World
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9

Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron

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10

Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron

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11
Jun - 93
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Ghost World, The Party, The Fairy Frog, The Happy Fisherman, Why I Hate Christians, Ectomorph

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12
Nov - 93
Ghost World, Hippypants and Peace Bear, The Origin of Dan Pussey, Glue Destiny

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13
Apr - 94
Ghost World, Buddy Bradley in 'Who Would You Rather Fuck: Ginger or Mary Ann?', Blue Italian Shit, Cool Your Jets, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
Buddy Bradley store based on Peter Bagge's characters
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14
no indicia
Ghost World, The Goldmommy, On Sports, The Death of Dan Pussey, The Sensual Santa

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15
Apr - 95
Ghost World, Caricature, Feldman
The Feldman character makes an appearance in the film 'Ghost World'
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16
Nov - 95
Ghost World, Squirrel Girl and Candy Pants, Like a Weed, Joe, MCMLXVI, Immortal Invisible

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17
Nov - 95
Ghost World, Black Nylon, Latch-Key Kid, Modern Cartoonist
Modern Cartoonist is a pamphlet included with the comic
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18
Mar - 97
Ghost World, Squirrel Girl and Candy Pants, Like a Weed, Joe, MCMLXVI, Immortal Invisible|
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19
May - 98
David Boring, Act I|
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20
Feb - 99
David Boring, Act 2

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21
Feb - 00
David Boring, Act 3|
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22
Oct - 01
Ice Haven|
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23
Jun - 04
Death Ray

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Book collections

* "Lout Rampage!" (1991) - Short stories
* "Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron" (1993) - Graphic novel
* "Pussey!" (1995) - Stories featuring Clowes' character Dan Pussey
* "Orgy Bound" (1996) - Short stories
* "Ghost World" (1997) - Graphic novel
* "Caricature" (1998) - Short stories
* "David Boring" (2000) - Graphic novel
* "Twentieth Century Eightball" (2002) - Short stories
* "Ice Haven" (2005) - A reformatted version of the contents of "Eightball" #22

Film adaptations

"Ghost World" was adapted by Clowes and director Terry Zwigoff into a 2001 feature film of the same name, for which Clowes and Zwigoff were nominated for an Academy Award for screenplay writing. Additionally, the 2006 Clowes/Zwigoff film "Art School Confidential" was loosely based on a short story of the same name which appeared in "Eightball" #7.

Controversy

The comic generated controversy when a high school teacher in Guilford, Connecticut gave "Eightball" #22 ("Ice Haven") to a student as a make-up summer reading assignment. The parents of the student had concerns about the book's appropriateness. The superintendent of Guilford High School said the book was inappropriate for 13-year-olds and placed the teacher on leave. The teacher resigned before the matter was fully investigated.cite news | title = Handling of teacher, comic issue riles parents | work = New Haven Advocate| last = Arnott | first = Christopher | date =2007-09-27 | url = http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=3262 ]

External links

* [http://core.ecu.edu/ENGL/parillek/dctitles.htm List of all issues of "Eightball" and their contents]
* [http://www.fantagraphics.com/artist/clowes/clowes.html Eightball at Fantagraphics - Order and preview Eightball comic books and merchandise from the publisher]

References