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David Boring

David Boring

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $13.57
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Searching for something
Review: David Boring is searching for something. His father, that perfect girl, meaning. His meaningless sexual encounters, his collection of things (scrapbook, comic book), his life as a movie, his friends, his fear of his mother all culminating in a story that is anything but boring. David's life is like one of his old movies, which we are taken through from start to finish. As the world slowly revolves without his noticing, much to annoyance of some of his friends, he can't seem to find what it is he wants.

This comic written as a whole story, rather than the vingettes of Ghost World provide a detailed narative that is quite satisfying. Every character is detailed, to the point of having a list of credits at the end (Daniel Clowes makes a cameo, but where I don't know.) The three acts give a clear path through which to solve the enigma of what David is searching for. I won't tell you if he finds an answer at the end, you'll have to read it for yourself.

Daniel shows us another excellent window into the lives of teenagers and young adults in the post-modern meaningless world that we all inhabit. Although some of the panels may shock you in their graphic nature, it is a real world, a real place that we live in and not a fake, cliche/angst ridden hell hole that some may have us believe.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not Boring
Review: Falling halfway between the surrealism of "Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron" and the realism of "Ghostworld", David Boring is a story about a young man who, on the one hand, has an inability to adapt to change because of his obsessiveness, but who nevertheless remains stable no matter what is thrown at him because of his very faults (although that means remaining constantly dissatisfied with life). I don't believe that David Boring (whose name I assume is a nod to the great Superman artist of the 1950s Wayne Boring) is meant to be as interesting as the events around him, but is meant to illustrate a person stuck in a rut no matter what goes on around him. Instead of moving on to a new girlfriend, for example, he continues to obsess about the one who has just dumped him, and instead of living his own life, he obsesses about his father through his old Yellow Streak comics. What makes this story depressing is that many of us can see a little of ourselves in David Boring. But underneath it all, David Boring is, at least, a survivor. It is this sort of imposed self-examination that makes this an important and effecting work of literature and the accompanying artwork by Clowes is simple but moody and emotional.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Like A Bullet in the Head......
Review: His last name may be Boring, but his story sure isn't.....When his "Friend" is mysteriously murdered (The wound that killed him apparently looks like a giant thumb-print in his forehead), David's life takes a turn towards the surreal: His dream girl mysteriously disappears, he is shot in the head for (Seemingly...) no reason, and when he is taken to a deserted island to recuperate, World War III seems to break out, complete with germ-warfare.

Writer/Illustrator Dan Clowes continues to deliver books that are impossible to encapsulate, yet impossible to put down. I literally had no idea where the story (And characters) would end up, but I couldn't wait to see them arrive. Murder, infidelity, terrorism....It's all a part of the mix, and Clowes does a wonderful job of making all of the pieces fit. If Clowes is capable of producing work that ISN'T groundbreaking, it'd be news to me. Highly recommended!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: so far so good.
Review: I am half way through the book and I love it. I want to take it slow, and enjoy the book instead of rushing through it. This book is clearly not for anyone under 15. (maybe older depending on your personal beliefs) but this book is definately R-Rated, and if you wouldn't let your kids see an "R" movie, this book is not for them. I did find it very well illustrated and so far I am really enjoying the story. I might reccomend Clowes' "Ghost world" for someone new to Daniel Clowes, but this book is significantly longer than Ghost World, and in that aspect this book may be a better buy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Medium at its Best
Review: I bought this title after reading a review in 'Time' magazine. I had read Clowes' '8-Ball' comic magazine before and found it interesting but too strange for my taste. This title was strange too, but as the review suggested, I found it so captivating and provocative that I couldn't it put down.

This is a sample of the comic medium at it's best - where the author renders a tale in such a way that couldn't be achieved in a novel or a film. Ursula Le Guin suggested that a novel is a thought experiment. This experiment is certainly a fascinating one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Ugly
Review: I don't know about Clowes himself, but he's managed to capture the spirit of an ugly, depressing, self-absorbed, immature pathetic pervert who spends most of the time rattling on about the "ideal woman," while we are suppose to feel bad for a guy who will settle for nothing less than perfection in his woman. it was sickening, this lecture on the classic form of a the female body. its mockery of god could be amusing if it weren't so devoid of humor and just simply nasty. I would NEVER recommend this. it just puts you in a terrible mood.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not as Good as "Ghost World"
Review: I read "David Boring" after being impressed by Clowes's previous graphic novel, "Ghost World," but I was somewhat disappointed. Unlike the cynical and terminally ironic teenage protagonists of the earlier book, the title character of "David Boring" never really comes to life, and neither do the lesser characters. (One of the notable achievements of "Ghost World" was the way in which even the minor characters who appeared in only a few panels would take on sharply defined and believable personalities.) The story also never really takes off, and often seems to be a series of random, improbable incidents intended to give David Boring more reasons for his sullen depression- though the background narrative (never clearly defined) about mysterious terrorist bombings and biological attacks seems prophetic, since the book was published in 2000.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not as Good as "Ghost World"
Review: I read "David Boring" after being impressed by Clowes's previous graphic novel, "Ghost World," but I was somewhat disappointed. Unlike the cynical and terminally ironic teenage protagonists of the earlier book, the title character of "David Boring" never really comes to life, and neither do the lesser characters. (One of the notable achievements of "Ghost World" was the way in which even the minor characters who appeared in only a few panels would take on sharply defined and believable personalities.) The story also never really takes off, and often seems to be a series of random, improbable incidents intended to give David Boring more reasons for his sullen depression- though the background narrative (never clearly defined) about mysterious terrorist bombings and biological attacks seems prophetic, since the book was published in 2000.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Massively original and entertaining graphic novel
Review: I remember what it was like to be nineteen. This book captures it perfectly. David Boring is the best graphic novel I've ever read. This "pornographic epic" tells the tale of a dorky nineteen-year-old trying to get laid while the world is about to come to an end. He gets shot, then goes to a deserted island where he has sex with an older woman who then commits suicide. This book is very well written, I really enjoyed it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: David Boring
Review: I was so unhappy with this book that it was immediately returned. Despite the many enthusiastic reviews that I first read here, I must say that the book was not at all what I expected. I found it to be crude, vulgar, and entirely lacking humor. I had purchased this book to give as a gift, to someone who has always loved comics, but after reading a few pages I was far too uneasy with the ugly tone of this book. I warn potential readers that this is not a book to take lightly.


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