Daniel Clowes

Daniel Clowes is part of the second generation of American underground comix artists. In many interviews, he claims to feel part of no group bigger than himself. This sense of splendid isolation, going back to a troubled childhood, is typical of many of Clowes' characters as well. The protagonists of 'Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron', 'Lloyd Llewellyn', and 'Ghost World', feel lost in a world replete with erotic stimuli and consumer goods. They do not feel at home in "the land of the free".

What makes their drama interesting is Clowes' fine feeling for human psychology - especially for human drives hidden behind the surface. The artist's mastery of bringing comix characters to life is such that his best- selling 'Ghost World' features two completely convincing teenage girls - no small feat for a male artist in his forties. More than one critic felt the comparison of 'Ghost World' with the literary classic 'The Catcher in the Rye' to be completely justified.

Dan Clowes was born in Chicago, and attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. He made his debut in late 1970s and throughout this decade, he has contributed to Psycho Comics, Look Mom Presents, Love & Rockets, Anything Goes, Doomsdag Squad, Twist, Judo Joe, Prime Cuts, Amazing Heroes, Village Voice, Weirdo, Young Lust and National Lampoon. Between April 1986 and December 1988, Clowes published his own 'Lloyd Llewellyn' comic book at Fantagraphics.

In October of the following year, he came up with 'Eightball', in which he published most of his work from then on, featuring Enid and Rebecca, the main characters from 'Ghost World', David Boring, and the frustrated comics artist Dan Pussey, who stars in the comics novella 'Pussey!', a funny who's-who-in-U.S.-comix, featuring Art Spiegelman and Harvey Kurtzman. In 2001, Clowes participated in MGM's cinema adaptation of 'Ghost World' by Terry Zwigoff.

In the spring of 1998, Clowes did an impressive gallery show at Galerie Lambiek and a special silkscreen, 'Clowes in Space' (shown above), was made for the occasion. An interesting detail about Clowes is that his second wife is a student of psychoanalysis and literature.