Just Finished Reading: The Death-Ray

Drawn + Quarterly sure likes giant books. The Death-Ray and Wilson are both ginormous. Anyways, this is another great book by my favorite comic book artist Daniel Clowes. It is about a boy who finds out that he has super strength when he smokes cigarettes. He also has something called the Death-Ray, which makes things completely disappear. What makes this superhero-type character different is that he really has no ambitions. He does beat up bad guys for a while, but he ends up just becoming a miserable person. I thought that The Death-Ray was really fun to read, and the pictures were amazing. Of course, I am probably biased because I believe that Daniel Clowes can do no wrong...

Character of the Week: Seymour from Ghost World

This week's character of the week is Seymour from the movie Ghost World. Interestingly, Seymour wasn't a very big character in the comic. In fact, he didn't even have a name and was only referred to as "bearded windbreaker." I thought it was very interesting how much Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff expanded his character. I'm really glad that they did because, in my opinion, this is Steve Buscemi's greatest performance. He is an awkward record collector who tries to find a woman through the personal ads. Instead, two girl trick him into thinking that she calls. Eventually, he ends up falling for one of the girls and his whole life falls apart. He is just such an interesting character because he is so awkward and unlikable, but is one of the most interesting characters I've ever seen in film. I just think that this is such a great role for Buscemi, because he usually plays talkative criminal types, like in Fargo or Reservoir Dogs, and this is just completely different.

Just Finished Reading: Mister Wonderful

The only thing better than something new by Daniel Clowes is the fact that I actually found it at a bookstore, so I didn't have to get it online. I almost didn't buy this book because read the Mister Wonderful comics from the New York Times about a year or two ago. I have all 18 chapters from NYT on my laptop. Seeing as how it is Daniel Clowes, though, I did need to have it for my book collection. Plus, there is new stuff added, so it isn't the same exact thing. In Clowes's comics, the characters are always very interesting, but somewhat unlikable. They are always the kind of people that it would be interesting to know, but you wouldn't really want to hang out with them. The two main characters in Mister Wonderful are no exception. They both have their elements of crazy, which is why they are so perfect for eachother. I really enjoyed reading this. I was going to just read a little and then start my homework, but I ended up reading the whole thing. I love both Daniel Clowes's writing and his drawing style. He has never made anything that I did not like.   

My Review: Paul

I was originally going to see Insidious today, but I decided to go see Paul instead because it was its last day in the theater I go to. I am really glad that I did because I really enjoyed this movie. I loved Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, so figured this one would be good too and I was right. Paul is about two nerds who, after going to Comic Con, decide to take a road trip to all the UFO-related sights in the US. Along the way they meet Paul, and alien who is voiced by Seth Rogan. Paul is on the run from the government because they want to cut out his brain, and he needs Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to help him get back home. This movie has a great cast along with Pegg, Frost, and Rogan that includes Kristen Wiig, Sigourney Weaver, Jason Bateman, Bill Hader, and Blythe Danner. This movie is also hilarious! It has references to several sci fi classics like Star Wars ("boring conversation anyway..."), Aliens ("get away from her you bitch!"), E.T., Predator, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and The X-Files. Even if you're not a big sci fi fan, I still think that you will find this movie hilarious. There were only two other people in the theater besides me, and we were all laughing our asses off. While it is a little strange to hear Seth Rogan's deep voice coming out of that little alien, I think that Rogan does a great job with his voice work. Pegg, Frost, and Wiig are always really funny, and Weaver, Bateman, and Hader are also great as the antagonistic government agents.   
One thing that I thought was really cool in this movie was that it has some Daniel Clowes references. As you can see in the poster, Simon Pegg wears an Eightball t-shirt for a good portion of the film. Also, you see this comic book a few times in the film called Encounter Briefs. I've never heard of it before, but I recognized that it was Clowes' style of drawing. I guess it is a fictional series that Clowes made especially for the film to be used as a prop.

My rating: 8/10

Character of the Week: Enid Coleslaw

This week's character of the week is my all-time favorite comic book character, Enid Coleslaw. Daniel Clowes' Ghost World is my favorite graphic novel and I have read it dozens of times. I actually have two copies of it, I have the normal copy, and the special edition copy with the screenplay that I got signed by Clowes at Fantagraphics! I also have a few issues of Eightball, so I guess I have three ways to read Ghost World.

I just love Enid because while she is very clever and funny, she is also flawed and seems like she could be a real person. Shes sort of like the girl who you really want to be friends with, but once you are friends with them you can't really stand them. I also just love her relationship with her best friend Rebecca. She sees herself as somewhat superior to her, and yet the two of them have this somewhat possessive relationship with eachother.

 You are always seeing the two of them together, and even when you don't, they seem to be talking about eachother. Enid is definitely the more dominant one in the friendship, and she is the one that realizes that they don't need to be friends forever, and she really starts seeing this when she is applying to college. Enid always acts like she doesn't care what people think, even though deep town she really does. This really shows when she changes out of her punk look after talking to Johnny Apeshit, and when she sells her car after people, like Rebecca, make fun of it, calling it a "goth dorkmobile."

In the 2001 movie version, Enid is played by Thora Birch, who does an amazing job. She is great at the sarcastic and bitch sides of Enid, as well as the vulnerable and lonely sides as well. Even though I do love Thora in the role, I am curious about how the movie would have turned out with Christina Ricci, who was originally going to play Enid. I think that she would have been fantastic in that role and I was really excited to see a drawing that Daniel Clowes did of her as Enid.

Anyways, Ghost World is one of my favorite movies, and a good chunk of the reason I love it is because of Thora Birch's portrayal of Enid Coleslaw. Here are some of the best scenes in the movie.

Spotlight On: Daniel Clowes

Daniel Clowes is by far my favorite comic writer and artist. I have loved everything he has written and look forward to everything he will do in the future. Here are my favorite works of his in order of how much I love them.

8. Pussey!

This book takes a look behind the scenes at the comics industry. It takes jabs at superhero artists and is really really funny.

7. 20th Century Eightball

This book is a compilation of a bunch of different stuff from Clowes' Eightball comics (of which I only have 4 or 5). This is definitely not for sensitive people and I would definitely not show this to my little sisters. Some of the comics are downright creepy and strange, but most of them are really funny. I love the Feldman ones, Ugly Girls, and My Suicide, but my all time favorites are I Hate You Deeply and I Love You Tenderly. In those he talks about the types of people that he hates and loves, and they really make me laugh.

6. Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron

Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron is definitely Daniel Clowes' strangest comic. Overall the book is pretty unsettling, especially with the disfigured character named Tina, but it is still a really good read and is something that I would definitely recommend.

5. Caricature

Like 20th Century Eightball, Caricature is a compilation of short comic stories from Eightball. Instead of being a bunch of little ones though, it is nine longer ones. All of the stories are really good, but my favorite is the first story. It is called Caricature and it's about a caricature artist who makes friends with a strange girl that he meets at a fair.

4. Ice Haven

Ice Haven is probably the one that I have read the most because its a pretty small book thats easy to carry everywhere. The book has a bunch of different stories that are all connected by the kidnapping of a young boy. There are a lot of great characters in here, but my favorites are probably Vida and Random Wilder.

3. Wilson

I was so excited for Wilson to come out. It seemed like it had been forever since I read something new from Clowes, so I was really happy when I read that he had a new book coming out. I thought it was strange that it was being published by Drawn + Quarterly and not Fantagraphics, but whatever...Anyways, the book did not disappoint. It's funny and smart and keeps getting better everytime I read it.

2. David Boring

I really love this book. All of the characters are really cool, it has a really interesting plot, and is one of the best things that I have ever read. Like I said, the whole book is really great, but my favorite parts are probably when David is talking with his roommate/ best friend Dot.

1. Ghost World

This is probably the totally obvious choice for my number one, but it is not only my favorite Daniel Clowes book, it is my favorite book. This book is just really clever and humourous, and I really love the characters of Enid and Rebecca. I mean, after living in Seattle for less than a week, I took my first city bus ride ever to Fantagraphics bookstore, so that I could get my Ghost World: Special Edition signed by Daniel Clowes himself. Not only is it my favorite book, but it also led to one of my favorite movies, which got Clowes an Oscar Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.  

Other Stuff:

I really like the poster he did for the movie Happiness (a.k.a. the creepiest movie I have ever seen.

His artwork is also in a Ramones video...

Wilson Being Made Into A Movie???

Here's some interesting news...apparently Alexander Payne, who previously directed Sideways and About Schmidt, is going to be directing a movie version of Daniel Clowes's newest graphic novel, Wilson. I'm kind of curious how this is going to work because I've read Wilson like a million times since I bought it, and at no point did I think, "This would make a great movie!" I mean in theory, this sounds like it could be amazing. Its being made by Fox Searchlight (awesome), being produced by Sam Raimi's production company Stars Road (double awesome), and the screenplay is apparently being written by Clowes himself (triple awesome.) I'm kind of skeptical about this, though, because even though I love the book, I'm not really sure how it, and more specifically the title character of Wilson, can translate to cinema. I'm sure that Clowes will write a great script, though, because I love all of his comics (can't wait for his next one, apparently coming out April 2011!), and Ghost World is one of my favorite movies. While reading about this online I read a comment that someone wrote about how Bill Murray should play Wilson, and I am not going to disagree...