Twentieth Century Eightball

Book excerpt: Trailing the success of the movie based on Clowes' graphic novel GhostWorld (1997) comes this collection of shorter stories from his alternativecomic book Eightball. Many of the pieces are tirades, albeit entertainingones, about things Clowes despises (perhaps the comic should have been calledHateball). "On Sports" details his contempt for professional athletics,and "Art School Confidential" is an expose of pretentious, talentless poseurs.This approach is carried to its logical peak in "I Hate You Deeply," a litany ofthe "types" that annoy Clowes, from "fashion plates" to "crybabies, whiners, andsensitive people." Clowes puts his misanthropy in abeyance for slice-of-lifestories in which he ruminates during a stroll around his neighborhood orfantasizes about his fellow passengers on a subway. Worthwhile enough, theseearlier stories merely presage Clowes' far-more-impressive recent work in whichcynicism is presented more subtly, leavened with sympathy, and voiced bywell-developed characters. If these pieces lack the heft of Clowes' longer, moreambitious efforts, the best of them are still masterful miniatures.