Daniel Clowes

Daniel Clowes
Clowes at the 2010 Alternative Press Expo
Born	Daniel Gillespie Clowes April 14, 1961 (1961-04-14) (age 50) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Cartoonist, author, screenwriter
Known for	Eightball (1989-present) Ghost World (1997)
Spouse	Erika Clowes
Children	Charlie

Daniel Gillespie Clowes (born April 14, 1961 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books.

Much of Clowes's work first appeared in his anthology comic Eightball, which featured self-contained serialized narratives. All of the serialized narratives have been collected and published as graphic novels, most notably Ghost World. With filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, Clowes adapted Ghost World into the 2001 film of the same name, and he also adapted another Eightball story into the 2006 film Art School Confidential.

Biography

In 1979, Clowes finished high school at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. After earning his BFA, he unsuccessfully attempted to find work in New York as an illustrator. From 1985 to 1989 he contributed both art and stories to Cracked magazine, working extensively on a feature called "The Uggly Family."

Daniel Clowes's Wilson (2010)

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";^[1] it ran for 20 installments, until mid-January 2008.^[2][3] Clowes's most recent graphic novel, Wilson, which did not appear in Eightball, was published by D&Q in May 2010.^[4]

Clowes lives in Oakland, California, with his wife Erika and son Charlie. In 2006, after a prolonged health crisis,^[5] 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.^[6][7]

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.

Screenwriting career

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)

Main article: Ghost World

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,^[8] most notably Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2002 Academy Awards.

Art School Confidential (2006)

Main article: Art School Confidential (film)

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.^[9]

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.^[10]

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.^[11]

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.^[12]

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^[13] 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.^[14]
• Clowes drew the cover art for Encounter Briefs, a fictional comic book featured in the film Paul.^[15]

Selected works

Clowes at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con Convention

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' first all-new 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 0930193903)
• Lout Rampage! (Fantagraphics, 1991, ISBN 978-1560970705) — Short stories from Eightball
• Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (Fantagraphics, 1993, ISBN 1560971169) — Eightball #1-#10
• Pussey!: The Complete Saga of Young Dan Pussey (Fantagraphics, 1995, ISBN 978-1560971832) — Eightball #1, #3, #4, #6, #8, #9, #12, #14
• Orgy Bound (Fantagraphics, 1996, ISBN 978-1560973027) — Short stories from Eightball
• Ghost World (Fantagraphics, 1997, ISBN 1560974273) — Eightball #11-#18
• Caricature (Fantagraphics, 1998, ISBN 978-1560973294) — Compilation of several Eightball short stories and one story ("Green Eyeliner") that appeared in Esquire
• David Boring (Pantheon Books, 2000, ISBN 978-0375406928) — Eightball #19-#21
• Twentieth Century Eightball (Fantagraphics, 2002, ISBN 978-1560974369) — Compilation of several Eightball short stories
• Ice Haven (Pantheon, 2005, ISBN 9780375423321) — Reformatted and expanded version of the experimental, multi-layered narrative in Eightball #22
• Wilson (Drawn and Quarterly, 2010, ISBN 978-1770460072) — One of nine Amazon Best Books of the Month selections for April 2010
• Mister Wonderful: A Love Story (Pantheon Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0307378132)
• The Death-Ray (Drawn and Quarterly, 2011, ISBN 9781770460515) — Eightball #23

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,^[16] 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.^[17]

References

1. ^ "New Daniel Clowes Comic Strip Launches Sunday in NY Times", The Comic Book Bin, 2007-09-13. Retrieved on 2007-09-15.
2. ^ Clowes, Daniel. "Mister Wonderful". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/magazine/funnypagesClowes.html. Retrieved 8 June 2011. 
3. ^ Garner, Dwight. Stray Questions for: Daniel Clowes. The New York Times Paper Cuts: A Blog About Books, 2007-08-24. Retrieved on 2007-09-15.
4. ^ [1]
5. ^ Comics Panel. [The best comics of the ’00s," The Onion A.V. Club (NOvember 24, 2009).
6. ^ The Comics Journal (ISBN 987-1-56097-984-5), issue 294, Dec.2008, page 102: In a one-page strip, sent to the magazine as a holiday card, Clowes has his son, Charlie, "looking back at 2006 AD". "Charlie Clowes" says "2006 was quite a year... Daddy had open-heart surgery and mommy had to take care of him while he just sat in a chair for two months, and he still can't even pick me up."
7. ^ Interview: Daniel Clowes, The A.V. Club, 2008-01-03.
8. ^ Ghost World (2001) – Awards and Nominations – Yahoo! Movies
9. ^ "Clowes pockets 'Eightball'". Variety. July 20, 2006. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117947172?categoryid=13&cs=1. 
10. ^ "Clowes’ The Death-Ray hardcover coming from Drawn & Quarterly next fall". Comic Book Resources. December 1, 2010. http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/12/clowes-the-death-ray-hardcover-coming-from-drawn-quarterly-next-fall/. Retrieved August 3, 2011. 
11. ^ It's no longer Confidential who is writing Michel Gondry's Master of Time and Space, if you guess you might be Clowes! – Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and co...
12. ^ IMDB entry, Internet Movie Database, 12-20-2007.
13. ^ Everything Looks Better in the Dark – Frank French & Kevn Kinney
14. ^ Santa Cruz Skateboards
15. ^ http://www.hypergeek.ca/2011/04/the-cover-to-daniel-clowes-encounter-briefs-as-featured-in-paul.html
16. ^ The New Yorker , May 24, 2010
17. ^ Mother Jones: Clowes Encounter: An Interview With Daniel Clowes

External links

• Daniel Clowes Bibliography: The most detailed site on the web for information on Clowes and his work.
• 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

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