Rating: 
Summary: Clowes' masterpiece.
Review: Clowes has only done a few stories of any length (I barely want to call Like a Velvet Glove
Cast in Iron a story, it's far too surreal and detatched -- and then that would leave what, the amateurish Lloyd Llewellyn stories -- and what else? ), but of them Ghost World is his best. Two teenage girls who do everything
together make fun of everyone else and occasionally deal with some more substantial
personal troubles. Like all of his work, it's
mostly a vehicle for Clowes' own views and criticisms, but there's a tenderness to these
connected stories that's absent from his more ferocious shorter pieces, which makes his violent
opinions a bit easier to swallow. If you find that
most of what's in Eightball (his serial comic, which is always recommendable and of an inhumanly consistent quality) to be maybe too spiteful or harsh, (personally, I don't) Ghost World might be more to your liking. The best
overview of his short strips is probably Lout Rampage, but any issue of Eightball would do
Rating: 
Summary: GHOST WORLD MOVIE IN DEVELOPMENT
Review: Dan Clowes' GHOST WORLD is considered his Magnum Opus, quite a feat since he is probably the most respected cartoonist in America after R.Crumb. The book, originally serialized in the pages of his comic book series EIGHTBALL, will soon be made into a motion picture, directed by Terry Zwigoff, the man behind the acclaimed documentary CRUMB (about the cartoonist of the same name). Clowes and Zwigoff have written the screenplay, and pre-production should begin next month. The film is bring produced by Danny DeVito's Jersey Pictures (PULP FICTION, GET SHORTY)
Rating:
Summary: Haunting little masterpiece
Review: Dan Clowes' graphic novel, "Ghost World" tells the story of Enid Coleslaw and her best friend Rebecca during the months between their high school graduation and the following October. The girls curse a lot, obsess over freaks and strange events in their lives and eventually come to realize their childhood friendship may not survive their transition into adulthood. Clowes has an amazing ability to zero in on life's smallest moments and find in them a fragile poetry. He's also not afraid to make his characters fallible, and sometimes, in the manner of callous youth, even cruel. Enid and Rebecca dub a waiter "Weird Al" because of his curly hair, and play a rude prank on a poor boob whose only crime was to gain their notice by placing a pathetic personal ad. And yet you won't hate the characters. They're vulnerable and honest in a very believable way, and their emotional journey through their final months together accurately depicts longing and unease, their nostalgia for things the way they were, and their need for different lives. For Rebecca, it's to hold onto things as they are, and for Enid, it's to go someplace else not to find herself, but to become someone different. The story's also full of humor and mystery. Enid and Rebecca inhabit a world of strange grafitti, of diners and run-down apartments where things tend to happen just outside the frame, or within windows. And Clowes' two-toned, semi-realistic, sometimes cartoony depiction of the various geeks, pervos and schmoes who inhabit "Ghost World" is dead on... the dopey expressions, the sudden crises, the need to feel something and the fear that accompanies that desire... it's all there in his characters' faces. Reminiscent of Will Eisner's work (and just a touch of Charles Burns'), and with a hip, modern feel, "Ghost World" provides a truly amazing and unique reading experience.
Rating:
Summary: Cynical and touching
Review: Daniel Clowes sure knows how to write an alternative comic. The comic is about two girls after graduation who are both not entirely sure what they want to do with their lives. Enid and Rebecca are far from perfect protagonists. They tease and tuant people, and can be downright mean sometimes. Sometimes they realize they've too far and feel sorry for it. They're quite human. A slice of life tale that doesn't pull any punches, Ghost World is one of the better independant comics and shows that the genre of comics isn't limited to manistream styled adventures and comedies.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't like the movie...
Review: Daniel Clowes', 'Ghost World,' is a shining example on how effective the medium of the graphic novel can be when coupled with fantastic, highly literate writing. Clowes' brilliance is demonstrated with his remarkable ability in capturing dialogue and the psyches of his late-teenage female characters - Enid and Becky. In fact, their characterizations and conversations seems so authentic and natural that it's almost as if Clowes videotaped real-life snippets of actual teenagers lives and then fashioned comic strips out of them. Unlike the movie adaptation, which had a sustained narrative, the graphic novel is comprised of episodic vignettes that seem more like a collection of short stories. These little tales are packed with so much melodrama, sharp-humour, keen observation and emotion that by the time you're finished with this 80 or so page book you'll feel like you've already digested volumes. I can't recommend this book highly enough and whether or not you've seen the movie you definitely need to read the original source. Top quality stuff all the way through.
Rating:
Summary: Brillinat writing, Brilliant art
Review: Daniel Clowes', 'Ghost World,' is a shining example on how effective the medium of the graphic novel can be when coupled with fantastic, highly literate writing. Clowes' brilliance is demonstrated with his remarkable ability in capturing dialogue and the psyches of his late-teenage female characters - Enid and Becky. In fact, their characterizations and conversations seems so authentic and natural that it's almost as if Clowes videotaped real-life snippets of actual teenagers lives and then fashioned comic strips out of them. Unlike the movie adaptation, which had a sustained narrative, the graphic novel is comprised of episodic vignettes that seem more like a collection of short stories. These little tales are packed with so much melodrama, sharp-humour, keen observation and emotion that by the time you're finished with this 80 or so page book you'll feel like you've already digested volumes. I can't recommend this book highly enough and whether or not you've seen the movie you definitely need to read the original source. Top quality stuff all the way through.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant and Clever
Review: First, I'll compare the book to the movie. There are so many things that are exactly the same in the book and in the movie: 50s diner, Weird Al, Goofy Gus, Satanists, the list goes on. However, the storylines seem to be different. In the movie, Enid falls in love (maybe that's a bit too strong, but hey) with Seymour and her relationship with her best friend Rebecca falls apart. In the book, Enid and Rebecca share feelings about Brad, and their relationship falls apart, while they insult and mock everyone around them. Sure, in the book Enid does play a trick on a weird guy (his name is/was unknown), but that was it. I think I liked the storyline in the book a little bit better in the book; it just seemed more real than in the movie. What I liked most about Ghost World, is that it shows what life's like, from an outcast's point of view. It's not the stereotypical mainstream kind of teen story with no plot. Which is why I know those types of teens wouldn't like it, even if they did understand it. Daniel Clowes must have been someone like Enid, to know what life is like for people like her, so well. Which, is not a bad thing. There's not really much to say about the illustration, but that it was really good. You can just see the visual connections between the book and the movie. It depicts how life might be seen by Enid or Rebecca. Good work, Daniel Clowes. Not to say anything bad about the movie, but see it first, and then read the book. You'll appreciate both much more if you do.
Rating:
Summary: Between This World and the Next
Review: For those who don't read comics because of the juvenile annotations, this will be a wonderful introduction to one of the most poignant minds working today. With GHOST WORLD, Daniel Clowes has followed in the footsteps of the Hernandez brothers' LOVE AND ROCKETS, by portraying the world of American youth in remarkably sympathetic terms. In contrast to the endlessly evolving world proposed by Los Bros Hernandez, the setting of GHOST WORLD is all to stagnant and finite. The denizens of GHOST WORLD are lead by Enid and Rebecca who during the coarse of the novel watch ever-synically as their Kingdom of Youth crumbles in the aftermath of adulthood. This maturation of the characters is ironically paired with Clowes' maturation as an artist(Currently, Eightball consists entirely of the in depth epic of David Boring, an excellent follow-up for the GHOST WORLD reader). Daniel Clowes has an ability to find an intimacy with his reader that raises the medium of comic books to a new forum where audience may come slightly closer to penetrating the fourth wall and making contact with the mind behind it. GHOST WORLD stands as evidence.
Rating:
Summary: A truly realistic portrait of aimless teens.
Review: Ghost World doesn't have much of a story to speak of. It simply chronicles the lives of Rebecca & Enid, two recent High-School grads who spend every waking moment pursuing their "Too-cool" existence, never realizing that no one else really likes them, and that all they really have is each other. This is the first book of any kind that I've come across that realistically portrays just how cruel and callous young girls can be. Dan Clowes makes the girls seem so real that you want to just reach into the book and either smack them (the terrible prank they play on a lonely man who took out a classified ad), or hug them (the arguement that Rebecca and Enid have that drives a wedge between them). This is a truly touching slice-of-life story, and Dan Clowes has just won over a new fan.
Rating:
Summary: We've all lived in a ghost world
Review: Ghost World is short, and I read it in an evening, but the images still resonate in my head. I was particularly touched by Clowes' style of drawing, and how he could evince complex emotions by just the look of a character's face. The world that high school best friends Enid and Becky inhabit seems bleak and empty, but I certainly remember those endless summer afternoons just wandering my hometown with my best friend, looking for ways to waste the time. This is probably my first experience with something that really captured the feel of a time I was growing up in---especially Enid's almost compulsive need to constantly reinvent her image as a way of finding her identity and feeling comfortable in her own skin. Especially in the early nineties, the small world I inhabited seemed rife with the need to be a strange individual and Ghost World certainly made me remember the alternative record store, the pretentious cafe, and my peers obsessing over the concepts of selling out and corporate America. It's sad the way Enid and Becky grow apart, and I think most people can relate to that, and it made me a bit nostalgic for the past. The end, in which Josh and Becky are together, and Enid is alone, leaving Ghost World, exemplifies the necessity of growing beyond some person or some thing---once considered so important to our daily lives---in order to become something more than what we were. And how the future is all at once so empty and limitless and blessedly unknown.
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