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EIGHTBALL #23
by Daniel Clowes
($7.00,
Fantagraphics Books)
Review by Sean McGurr
I'm not sure if this is good or bad. In a Time.com article titled "
If You Read Only 10 Trashy Novels This Summer", Daniel Clowes' new
Eightball #23 is listed along with Sue Grafton (the alphabet mystery series), Carl Hiaasen (who I like for a quirky, quick read), Janet Evanovich (the numbers mystery series) and a number of other authors I don't know. I'm impressed that a comic is listed with novels and mainstream books; but "trashy", I don't think so. The quick description from
Time: "It's like Holden Caulfield with his phaser set on kill. Phonies beware."
After seeing
Spider-Man 2 (which I enjoyed), go pick up
Eightball #23, entitled "The Death Ray", to see how a regular teenager would deal with great power and great responsibility. A self-contained story, the book is about Andy, a nerdy, Midwestern, high schooler living with his grandfather during the '70s. His only friend, Louie, seems to take advantage of him and he may or may not have a long-distance relationship with a girl who moved to California. After smoking a cigarette, Andy discovers that he has augmented strength and energy. It is at this time that his grandfather gives Andy a package from his dead father that contains a death ray and a letter about how Andy was experimented on as a child and how nicotine would activate his powers.
Louie convinces Andy that they should use his powers to fight crime and restore justice to the world. Their success is middling because of their sense of right and wrong and the lack of crimes that they uncover. More importantly, the relationship between Louie and Andy, and the development of Andy as a character, is explored with Clowes' excellent sense of pacing and ear for dialogue. As can be expected, the story isn't a typical "good guy beats up bad guy" and to some extent the outcome is predictable. But for Clowes, the plot (what happens and how) is less important than the set up and denouement (why it happens and the results). His use of long monologues by the main character in everyday settings is a nice change of pace.
The book itself is a beautiful piece of work. Oversized and printed on a heavy (often colored) stock, it still smells as if it's fresh from the printer while giving the impression that it is an older book. Clowes' art is clean and sharp as usual and his characters aren't as hard to look at (because of their intentional ugliness) as they have been in the past. The book is separated into different chapters that often have a different style or look.
Eightball #23 is available at excellent comic shops and will probably be the best single-issue of a comic book this year.
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