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Daniel Gillespie Clowes (born April 14, 1961 in Chicago) is an author, screenwriter, and cartoonist of alternative comic books, including Eightball and Lloyd Llewelyn. He is best known by mainstream audiences for the movie Ghost World, which he adapted from some of his stories.

Biography

In 1979, he finished high school and attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. After gaining 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 which soon appeared in issue 13 of the Hernandez Brothers' comic Love and Rockets. Clowes's Lloyd Llewellyn comic ran for six issues, and in 1988 the last Lloyd Llewellyn title, The All-New Lloyd Llewellyn Special, appeared. Then in 1989 Fantagraphics published the first issue of Eightball, which, as of 2005, is at issue 23. All of his subsequent books originally appeared as serials in Eightball. He lives in Oakland, California with his wife Erika and son Charlie.

Eightball

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. The first dozen or so issues of Eightball typically contain a number of short comedic stories, but later issues have tended to focus on longer narratives. Ghost World was released as a collection in 1997 after being serialized in Eightball (11-18). It was adapted by Clowes and director Terry Zwigoff into a full-length feature film in 2001; both were nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay. Issues 19-21 serialize "David Boring" and have been released as a graphic novel by Pantheon Books.

Clowes continues to issue Eightball sporadically, with the most recent issues ("Ice Haven" #22 and "The Death-Ray" #23 [2004) each conceived as an artistically ambitious and self-contained work, featuring oversized, all-color formats. Ice Haven was released in June of 2005 by Pantheon in a revised and reformatted hardcover edition.

Awards

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 was also nominated for the Harvey Special Award for Humor in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997.

In 2005, he was also nominated for Best Letterer, Best Cartoonist, Best Continuing / Limited Series (Eightball), and Best Colorist and won Best Writer and Best Single Issue or Story (Eightball #23) for the Harvey Awards.

Movie Career

Clowes's career as a comic artist has recently blended into being a script writer, writing movies that are loosely based on his comic works. Both of his movies have been directed by Terry Zwigoff.

Ghost World (2000)

Set in a non-descript American town, Ghost World follows the misadventures of two high school friends, Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson). The friends delight themselves in mocking others and causing trouble. Rebecca wants to get an apartment and move in with Enid, but Enid is habitually distracted and cannot hold onto a job. The two play a prank on a geeky, old record collector (Steve Buscemi) who quickly becomes Enid's friend. The movie follows Enid maturing into an adult as her relationship with Rebecca deterioriates.

The movie was nominated for a host of awards * most notably Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 Academy Awards.

Art School Confidential (2006)

The movie is based very loosely on a comic story in Dan Clowes' Eightball. Art School Confidential follows Jerome (Max Minghella), an art student who dreams of becoming the greatest artist in the world.

Master of Space and Time (TBD)

Clowes and Michel Gondry have discussed collobarating 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.*

Trivia

  • The main character of Ghost World is named Enid Coleslaw, which is an anagram for Daniel Clowes.
  • Clowes's artwork can also 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, such as The Supersuckers album The Smoke of Hell.
  • Clowes created the movie poster for the film Happiness (by Todd Solondz).
  • Clowes did artwork for a series of OK Soda cans, a short-lived cola created by Coca-Cola and marketed to the "Generation X" demographic. Incidentally, Sheppard Fairey's anti-corporation spoof "obey" came to realization.
  • A Clowes illustration appeared on a skateboard deck for Santa Cruz Skateboards in the early '90s. The deck was re-issued in black and white in 2006.
  • The Daniel Clowes story "Art School Confidential" is based on his experiences at the Pratt Institute. These same experiences served as the basis for Clowes's script for the film "Art School Confidential" (2006). This is referenced in the cafeteria scene in the movie: a BFA from Pratt is visible on the wall.

Partial bibliography

Comic books:
  • Lloyd Llewelyn #1-#6 and a Special, the last number was released in December, 1988
  • Eightball #1-#23. #23 was released in June 2004

Collections:

Movies:

Miscellaneous:

Commercial work:

External links

1961 births | American comics artists | American comics writers | Eisner Award winners | Harvey Award winners | Jewish American writers | Living people | Underground cartoonists

Daniel Clowes | Daniel Clowes

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Daniel Clowes".

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