Caricature

Rating:
Summary: Nabokov?
Review: Although I'm an ardent admirer of Clowes, Caricature left me disappointed. Out of the nine stories in this collection, I was only really impressed by and interested in two. One of which was the title piece, which told the somewhat charming, somewhat unnerving story of a cartoon artist who makes his living drawing caricatures at carnivals and his odd relationship with a teenage girl who's in awe of his work. In typical Clowes style, all of these stories feature characters that are obsessed, alienated, and depressed, but unfortunately most of them (such as MCMLXVI, which is nothing more than a guy ranting about his preoccupation with 60's pop culture) feel tedious and don't really seem to go anywhere. Clowes is a brilliant cartoonist, but this collection isn't his best work.

Rating:
Summary: Unreality
Review: Clowes has always been an excellent storyteller, but the brilliance of his work is not in his stories (which are often mundane and uneventful) but the rich and poignant display of emotions that play underneath the narrative. This was certainly the case in "Ghost World" and "David Boring" in that the exploration of loneliness, adolescent angst and self-loathing took place in the nuances of facial expression and the subtext of spoken word, and not in the unfolding of the plot. "Caricature" is no different, but with the added advantage of Clowes working without the burden of having to tell a story. Being less constrained by the demands of a longer, more cohesive narrative format, Clowes in this collection of nine vignettes is able to explore his themes with greater freedom and whimsy. Thus, many of the stories here take on a dream-like quality and even the more grounded ones have a strong sense of unreality. And indeed, it is in the weird plane of reverie where the emotions he means to convey are best communicated. This is stream-of-consciousness in the form of the graphic novel and more than in any of his other work he communicates at the level of the subconscious. Needless to say there are moments in this book that are transcendental.

Rating:
Summary: I'm Glad I'm Not Any of These People.....
Review: How does Dan Clowes manage to tell pointless, meandering stories about monstrously defective people and still make them entertaining? Beats me. I'm just glad to know that, as messed-up as I may be, I'm not anywhere NEAR as bad as the folks portrayed in Caricature....For instance, Clowes introduces us to Mona Beadle (Green Eyeliner), a former fat-girl who has devoted her life to a strange revenge fantasy, which fails miserably. Or there's always the malcontent who just rants about how every year after 1966 was no good. Or Mal Rosen, a caricature artist who meets a severly messed up girl who may or may not be: 15 Years old, 22 Years old, the daughter of a famous artist, battered by her boyfriend, etc. And don't forget the luckless Super-Hero and the strange trick-or-treater...

In addition to great storytelling and lovely art, Clowes also delivers the reader a feeling of inner peace....because no matter HOW bad your life may be, Clowes shows you it could always be worse. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Mixers
Review: One of these stories will hit a nerve with you, though probably not all. Clowes works in several styles and this is a good fix-mix, rather than pure drama-angst of "Ghostball" or the comics-fixated parody of "Pussey!"----which is yeah all good, but this one's the sampler. Try it if you've never touched Clowes, and know that he does all of these styles again, somewhere, in longer doses.

Rating:
Summary: Nobody captures the feeling of alienation better then Clowes
Review: The brilliance of Clowes comic strips can be found in his unique ability to capture that lonely, empty feeling of alienation that his characters so often convey drifting in and out of vapid 'Ghost Worlds.' Make no mistake about it, this book is brilliant and should be rated 5 stars if it weren't for the last 1/5 of it where we're offered 2 stories that suffer from a lack of narrative cohesion. The first 4/5's though, demonstrate Clowes at his finest by way of his beautiful artwork and razor-sharp writing filled with pathos, humour and cutting observation.

Not to be missed by fans of Clowes not to mention newcomers interested in getting a taste of his work.

Rating:
Summary: Grim and brilliant
Review: This collection is the opposite extreme of 20th Century Eightball. While 20th C is hilariously funny, this book is dark & cynical. I would recommend 20th C for a 'beginning' Clowes fan, and this for someone who likes his grimmer stuff.

Rating:
Summary: aufgh
Review: To all the other reviewers: You can't expect all of Dan Clowes' work to be exactly like "Ghost World", I mean if you start out reading "Ghost World", and then expect all his comics to be exactly the same way, then it's not, and to say that something isn't as good because you keep comparing it to "Ghost World", then that's just stupid.

Like all of Dan Clowes' work, this comics is what it is, it's cynical and has stories that absorb you, such as the first one, and most of the female characters have something weird and strange about them, it's just an awesome book collection of his comics, and if you're a real fan of his, you'll get, but if you're just some person who keeps comparing everything to "Ghost world", you should still get it, but stop comparing!! geez

Rating:
Summary: aufgh
Review: To all the other reviewers: You can't expect all of Dan Clowes' work to be exactly like "Ghost World", I mean if you start out reading "Ghost World", and then expect all his comics to be exactly the same way, then it's not, and to say that something isn't as good because you keep comparing it to "Ghost World", then that's just stupid.

Like all of Dan Clowes' work, this comics is what it is, it's cynical and has stories that absorb you, such as the first one, and most of the female characters have something weird and strange about them, it's just an awesome book collection of his comics, and if you're a real fan of his, you'll get, but if you're just some person who keeps comparing everything to "Ghost world", you should still get it, but stop comparing!! geez