Click images to enlargeWith all the Richie Rich talk around here lately, I was reminded of this hilarious Dan Clowes strip from early in his career. Before he got all high falutin' and "went Hollywood", Clowes turned out some wonderful short humor strips in the first dozen issues of Eightball. From the pages of Eightball # 5 (1991), enjoy Playful Obsession:
I just read "The Death Ray" the other day, and it was brilliant -a complex puzzle of a story- but I miss the pop-eyed, sweat-flinging frenetic cartooniness in this early work. Sure, its important to grow an' mature in your work, but I sure would like to see Clowes just be "zany" again, if only for a change of pace. Of course, we all get older and our tastes change so maybe he just needs to do whatever moves him. Whatever the case, I'm glad we got the early Eightball work at all. "Playful Obsession" and most of the early Eightball humor shorts are retouched, recolored and reprinted in Twentieth Century Eightball, a volume I can't recommend highly enough..
5 comments:
That's brilliant. I love Clowes, but I haven't seen this early stuff. I must buy this book as soon as possible.
This book is packed with great stuff. Wait'll you get a load of "The Happy Fisherman" and "On Sports"! I do have a handy Amazon.com link now...
Wow. That wasn't funny AT ALL.
As with anything on the internet, Your mileage may vary.
Yeah, i miss the zany stuff.
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