"You can give some kind of spark of life to a comic that a photograph doesn't really have. A photograph, even if it's connecting with you, it seems very dead on the page sometimes." -- Daniel Clowes
Daniel Gillespie Clowes (born April 14, 1961 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Academy Award-nominated American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books.
Much of Clowes' work first appeared in his anthology comic Eightball, which featured self-contained and 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 2000 film of the same name, and he also adapted another Eightball story into the 2006 film Art School Confidential. Before Eightball, Clowes worked on the comic book series Lloyd Llewellyn.
"I have this certain vision of the way I want my comics to look; this sort of photographic realism, but with a certain abstraction that comics can give. It's kind of a fine line.""I love the medium and I love individual comics, but the business is nothing I would be proud of.""I must have been 3 years old or less, and I remember paging through these comics, trying to figure out the stories. I couldn't read the words, so I made up my own stories.""I was a very fearful little kid, and I would always see the worst in everything. The glass was half-empty. I would see people kissing, and I would think one was trying to bite the other.""It's embarrassing to be involved in the same business as the mainstream comic thing. It's still very embarrassing to tell other adults that I draw comic books - their instant, preconceived notions of what that means.""When you see somebody who's got a complaining personality, it usually means that they had some vision of what things could be, and they're constantly disappointed by that. I think that would be the camp that I would fall into - constantly horrified by the things people do."
In 1979, Clowes finished high school at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and attended 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."
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' 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 (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 isses of Eightball, ("Ice Haven" #22 [2001] and "The Death-Ray" #23 [2004]), were each conceived as an artistically ambitious and self-contained work, featuring 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 written by Clowes. Clowes described the novel as a "romance"; it ran for 20 installments, until mid-January 2008. Clowes's most recent graphic novel, Wilson, which did not appear in Eightball, was published by D&Q in May 2010.
Clowes lives in Oakland, California with his wife Erika and son Charlie. In 2006, after a prolonged health crisis, Clowes underwent open heart surgery. His next planned graphic novel is a collection of his Mister Wonderful strip featuring added content specific to the standalone release of the story.
Clowes' most famous work is associated with the late 1980s and 1990s, a transformational time for alternative comics. Clowes' work was an important part of the explosion in the popularity of this genre and the newfound respect that 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 he has been critical of the term "graphic novel"). His most famous work also coincides temporally with the so-called Generation X movement, 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.
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.it
Clowes has written two movies based on his comic works, Ghost World and Art School Confidential, both of which were directed by Zwigoff. He has begun work on three proposed film projects.
Ghost World (2001)
Set in a non-descript 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 Ghost World (2001) - Awards and Nominations - Yahoo! Movies 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 (TBD)
In the summer of 2004, Clowes released issue 23 of his comic 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. The film version will be related to this story, though it will not be an exact adaptation. Clowes pockets 'Eightball' - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety
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. Despite the way it is being presented in various accounts, this project has not advanced beyond the discussion stage. It's no longer Confidential who is writing Michel Gondry's MASTER OF SPACE AND TIME, if you guess you might be Clowes! - Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and co...
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.
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 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 Eightball illustrations appeared on skateboard decks for Santa Cruz Skateboards in the early 1990s. One deck was re-issued in black and white in 2006. Santa Cruz Skateboards
Lloyd Llewellyn #1-#6 (1986—1987) and a special (1988)
Eightball #1-#23. #23 was released in June 2004
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
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
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, 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.
