Eightball (comic book)
Encyclopedia
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 satire
s ("Art School Confidential", "On Sports"), longer, more reflective self-contained stories ("Caricature", "Immortal Invisible"), and serial
ized 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
.
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.
, 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.
Alternative comics
Alternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series written and drawn by Daniel Clowes
Daniel Clowes
Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....
. The first issue was published by Fantagraphics Books
Fantagraphics Books
Fantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...
in 1989, soon after the end of Clowes's previous comic series, Lloyd Llewellyn
Lloyd Llewellyn
Lloyd Llewellyn is a comic book by Daniel Clowes. The black-and-white series, published by Fantagraphics Books, ran for six issues from April 1986 to June 1987...
. 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
The Sensual Santa
"The Sensual Santa" is a one-page comic by Daniel Clowes. It originally appeared in Eightball #14 and was reprinted in the Clowes collections Orgy Bound and Twentieth Century Eightball....
"), topical rants and satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
s ("Art School Confidential", "On Sports"), longer, more reflective self-contained stories ("Caricature", "Immortal Invisible"), and serial
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
ized works. The first extended story to be serialized in Eightball was Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Daniel Clowes. The book follows a rather fantastic and paranoid plot, very different from the stark realism of Clowes' later more widely known Ghost World...
, which ran in issues #1 through 10. Glove was followed by Ghost World
Ghost World
Ghost World is a comic book written and illustrated by Daniel Clowes. It was originally serialized in issues #11 through #18 of Clowes's comic book series Eightball, and was first published in book form in 1997 by Fantagraphics Books...
(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
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
David Boring
David Boring
David Boring is a comic series and graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. It was originally serialized as issues #19 through 21 of the comic book Eightball before being published in collected form by Pantheon Books in 2000...
, 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
Ice Haven
Ice Haven is a 2005 graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. The book's contents were originally published as the comic book Eightball #22 and were subsequently reformatted to make the hardcover Ice Haven book....
" and "The Death Ray", respectively). Also, the issues of Eightball beginning with #19 have been published in full color in a larger magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
-sized format.
Eightball #18 included a bound-in copy of Clowes's pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
/minicomic
Minicomic
A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term "small press comic" is equivalent with minicomic reserved for those publications measuring A6 or less...
Modern Cartoonist
Modern Cartoonist
Modern Cartoonist is a 1997 essay by Daniel Clowes published as a 16-page black, white and red illustrated pamphlet. It was originally bound in with copies of Eightball #18 and was also offered for sale individually...
.
Single Issues
| Issue # | 1st Print Date | Stories | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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? | |
| 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? | |
| 3 | Jun- 90 | Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, The Stroll, The Young Manhood of Dan Pussey, What Can Robots Do? | |
| 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? | |
| 5 | Oct - 90 | Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Just Another Day, Playful Obsession, Paranoid | |
| 6 | Jun - 91 | Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, The Dr. Infinity Story (Dan Pussey), Marooned | |
| 7 | Nov - 91 | Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Art School Confidential, Chicago | |
| 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 |
| 9 | Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron | ||
| 10 | Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (conclusion) | ||
| 11 | Jun - 93 | Velvet Glove, Ghost World, The Party, The Fairy Frog, The Happy Fisherman, Why I Hate Christians, Ectomorph | "Velvet Glove" is a parody of bad film adaptations, using the just-completed Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron as its source, with behind-the-scenes segments showing an increasingly anxious Clowes in talks with a clueless Hollywood producer, and scenes from the resulting movie, in which Clay is a tough, sarcastic police detective who plays by his own rules and makes pithy remarks (such as "what are you lookin' at?") before shooting his enemies. Tina is recast as a space alien who gives "Clay" a ring of power. |
| 12 | Nov - 93 | Ghost World, Hippypants and Peace Bear, The Origin of Dan Pussey, Glue Destiny | |
| 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 | The Buddy Bradley Buddy Bradley Harold "Buddy" William Bradley Jr. generally referred to as Buddy Bradley is a comic book character created by Peter Bagge and featured in several of his comic books, most notably Hate and Neat Stuff... story is based on characters by Peter Bagge Peter Bagge Peter Bagge is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of Buddy Bradley, Hate, Neat Stuff, Martini Baton, and Sweatshop, Apocalypse Nerd and Other Lives. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth... . |
| 14 | no indicia | Ghost World, The Goldmommy, On Sports, The Death of Dan Pussey, The Sensual Santa | |
| 15 | Apr - 95 | Ghost World, Caricature, Feldman | The Feldman character makes an appearance in the film 'Ghost World' |
| 16 | Nov - 95 | Ghost World, Squirrel Girl and Candy Pants, Like a Weed, Joe, MCMLXVI, Immortal Invisible | |
| 17 | Aug - 96 | Ghost World, Gynecology | |
| 18 | Mar - 97 | Ghost World, Black Nylon, Latch-Key Kid, Modern Cartoonist | Modern Cartoonist is a pamphlet included with the comic |
| 19 | May - 98 | David Boring, Act I | |
| 20 | Feb - 99 | David Boring, Act 2 | |
| 21 | Feb - 00 | David Boring, Act 3 | |
| 22 | Oct - 01 | Ice Haven | |
| 23 | Jun - 04 | Death Ray |
Book collections
- Lout Rampage! (Fantagraphics, 1991, ISBN 978-1560970705) — Short stories
- Like a Velvet Glove Cast in IronLike a Velvet Glove Cast in IronLike a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Daniel Clowes. The book follows a rather fantastic and paranoid plot, very different from the stark realism of Clowes' later more widely known Ghost World...
(Fantagraphics, 1993, ISBN 1560971169) — Graphic novel - Pussey!: The Complete Saga of Young Dan Pussey (Fantagraphics, 1995, ISBN 978-1560971832) — Stories featuring Clowes' character Dan Pussey
- Orgy Bound (Fantagraphics, 1996, ISBN 978-1560973027) — Short stories
- Ghost WorldGhost WorldGhost World is a comic book written and illustrated by Daniel Clowes. It was originally serialized in issues #11 through #18 of Clowes's comic book series Eightball, and was first published in book form in 1997 by Fantagraphics Books...
(Fantagraphics, 1997, ISBN 1560974273) — Graphic novel - CaricatureCaricature (Daniel Clowes collection)Caricature is a book collection of nine comic short stories by Daniel Clowes. In contrast to earlier Clowes collections such as Lout Rampage! and Orgy Bound, Caricature concentrates on the more naturalistic, character-focused side of Clowes's output displayed in Ghost World...
(Fantagraphics, 1998, ISBN 978-1560973294) — Short stories - David BoringDavid BoringDavid Boring is a comic series and graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. It was originally serialized as issues #19 through 21 of the comic book Eightball before being published in collected form by Pantheon Books in 2000...
(Pantheon BooksPantheon BooksPantheon Books is an American imprint with editorial independence that is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.The current editor-in-chief at Pantheon Books is Dan Frank.-Overview:...
, 2000, ISBN 978-0375406928) — Graphic novel - Twentieth Century EightballTwentieth Century EightballTwentieth Century Eightball is a book collection of comics by Daniel Clowes published by Fantagraphics Books in 2002. It consists of numerous short pieces originally published in Clowes's Eightball , and other venues...
(Fantagraphics, 2002, ISBN 978-1560974369) — Short stories - Ice HavenIce HavenIce Haven is a 2005 graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. The book's contents were originally published as the comic book Eightball #22 and were subsequently reformatted to make the hardcover Ice Haven book....
(Pantheon, 2005, ISBN 9780375423321) — A reformatted version of the contents of Eightball #22
Film adaptations
Ghost World was adapted by Clowes and director Terry ZwigoffTerry Zwigoff
Terry Zwigoff is an American filmmaker whose work often deals with misfits, antiheros, and themes of alienation. His fiction films are the features Ghost World , Bad Santa , and Art School Confidential...
into a 2001 feature film of the same name
Ghost World (film)
Ghost World is a 2001 comedy-drama film directed by Terry Zwigoff, based on the comic book of the same name and screenplay by Daniel Clowes...
, for which Clowes and Zwigoff were nominated for an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
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 GuilfordGuilford, Connecticut
Guilford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, that borders Madison, Branford, North Branford and Durham, and is situated on I-95 and the coast. The population was 21,398 at the 2000 census...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
gave Eightball #22 (Ice Haven
Ice Haven
Ice Haven is a 2005 graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. The book's contents were originally published as the comic book Eightball #22 and were subsequently reformatted to make the hardcover Ice Haven book....
) 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
Guilford High School (Connecticut)
Guilford High School is a four-year public high school in Guilford, Connecticut. According to the school website,College Board Scholastic Assessment Test and Connecticut Academic Performance Tests results for GHS students are consistently above state, regional and national averages...
said the book was inappropriate for 13-year-olds and placed the teacher on leave. The teacher resigned before the matter was fully investigated.