EISNER AWARDS 171
a number of comics personalities, from Stan Lee (“Dr. Infi nity”) to Art Spiegelman
(“Gummo Bubbleman”). His fi nal words? “Th ey preserved my work in plastic bags.” In
retrospect, Clowes’s graphic novel Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (1993) presents a key
turning point in the artist’s development. As a parody of a hopelessly bad movie project,
Ve l v e t G l o v e sounds on paper very much like the artist’s other projects from this period,
with their focus on the entertainment industry as a playground for human foibles. Yet
the story has an unsettlingly ambiguous quality, and Clowes seemed to be reaching for
a new level of seriousness in his work.
After completing Ve l v e t G l o v e, Clowes turned to his next major project, Ghost
Wo r l d , which remains his best-known work to date and which was also serialized in
the pages of Eightball. Released as a graphic novel in 1997, Ghost World tells the story
of best friends from high school who drift apart during the summer after senior year. A
fi lm version, starring Th ora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Steve Buscemi, and directed
by Terry Zwigoff , was released in 2001. Th e fi lm received numerous awards, and the
screenplay, by Clowes and Zwigoff , was nominated for an Academy Award. Clowes
and Zwigoff subsequently collaborated on Art School Confi dential (2006), a studio fi lm
starring Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, and John Malkovich. Clowes’s script is loosely
based a short story that originally appeared in Eightball in 1991.
Building on the success of Ghost World, Clowes used the pages of Eightball as
a launching pad for a pair of graphic novels that narrate the struggles of forlorn
anti-heroes — David Boring (2000) and Ice Haven (2005). Both books were published
by Pantheon. Clowes’s bitter 2004 take on the superhero myth, “Th e Death Ray,” may
also be adapted as a movie.
While the early stories that appeared in Eightball were mainly intended to generate
knowing laughs, the more recent material has a decidedly sophisticated and self-
questioning edge. Th e development of the series not only tracks Dan Clowes’s
maturation as a cartoonist and illustrator; it also refl ects the growing ambitions of the
independent comics scene. Whether another issue of Eightball will ever appear seems
highly uncertain. Th e same cannot be said of its wider cultural infl uence.
Kent Worcester
EISNER AWARDS. Th e Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly referred to
simply as the Eisner Awards, have been given annually since 1988 for outstanding
achievement in comics art. Named for pioneering comics artist Will Eisner, the awards
are given in a wide variety of categories, such as Best Single Issue/Single Story, Best
Serialized Story, Best Continuing Story, and Best Graphic Album, as well as specifi c
individual awards such as Best Writer, Best Writer/Artist, and Best Colorist/Coloring.
One of the awards is a Hall of Fame Award that gives recipients entry into the comic
industry’s hall of fame. Nominations for the awards are made by a fi ve-person panel;
winners are then chosen by a ballot of comics professionals. Th e awards are presented at
the Comic-Con International Convention held each summer in San Diego, California.
M. Keith Booker
