Eightball

(Fantagraphics, 1989-2001)
©1989 Daniel Clowes

Eightball is perhaps the most famous work by alternative comics guru Dan Clowes. Clowes brings a shaky, claustrophobic feel to each of these stories, a mood that is reflected in everything from the perpetually furrowed brows of the characters to the surreal nature of situations they find themselves in. A good example of this is the series’ lead story, “Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron.” Here a man finds an all-knowing oracle in the bathroom of a movie theater and all he can think to ask is whether or not the oracle knew anything about the strange film he just watched. The images from that film reappear again when the man meets a person with fish in his eye sockets, an insane street bum, and a three-eyed prostitute.

Eightball is reminiscent of William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch,” particularly in how the painfully dull lives of the characters are transformed to take on nightmarish dimensions.

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