Eightball (comics)


Eightball is a comic book by Daniel Clowes and published by Fantagraphics Books. It ran from 1989 to 2004. The first issue appeared soon after the end of Clowes's previous comic book, Lloyd Llewellyn. Eightball has been among the best-selling series in alternative comics.
Early issues of Eightball feature a mixture of very short, often crudely humorous comics, topical rants and satires, longer, more reflective self-contained stories, and serialized works. The first extended story serialized in Eightball was Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, which ran in issues #1–10. Glove was followed by Ghost World. Beginning with #19 each issue of Eightball has been devoted to a single storyline, as opposed to the more eclectic format of the earlier issues. Issues #19–21 serialized the graphic novel David Boring, while issues #22 and 23 each consisted of a collection of short, fragmentary stories in diverse styles and formats that meshed into a unified narrative. The issues of Eightball beginning with #19 have been published in full color in a larger magazine-sized format. Eightball #18 included a bound-in copy of Clowes's pamphlet Modern Cartoonist.

Single issues

Issue #1st Print DateStoriesNotes
1Oct - 89Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Devil Doll, The Laffin' Spittin' Man, Young Dan Pussey, What is the Most Important Invention of the Twentieth Century?
2Feb - 90Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, The Truth, I Hate You Deeply, What Do You Think George Washington's Voice Sounded Like?
3Jun- 90Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, The Stroll, The Young Manhood of Dan Pussey, What Can Robots Do?
4Oct - 90Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, I Love You Tenderly, The Future, Dan Pussey's Masturbation Fantasy, Sexual Frustration, What Do You Do for a Cold?
5Oct - 90Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Just Another Day, Playful Obsession, Paranoid
6Jun - 91Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, The Dr. Infinity Story, Marooned
7Nov - 91Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Art School Confidential, Chicago
8Mar - 92Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Ugly Girls, Grist for the Mill, Dan Pussey Presents Komic Kollector's Korner, Nature Boy, Give it Up, My Suicide, Dialogues from Duplex Planet'Ugly Girls' contains a prototype of Enid from Ghost World
9Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron
10Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron
11Jun - 93Velvet Glove, Ghost World, The Party, The Fairy Frog, The Happy Fisherman, Why I Hate Christians, Ectomorph"Velvet Glove" is a parody of bad film adaptations, using the just-completed Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron as its source, with behind-the-scenes segments showing an increasingly anxious Clowes in talks with a clueless Hollywood producer, and scenes from the resulting movie, in which Clay is a tough, sarcastic police detective who plays by his own rules and makes pithy remarks before shooting his enemies. Tina is recast as a space alien who gives "Clay" a ring of power.
12Nov - 93Ghost World, Hippypants and Peace Bear, The Origin of Dan Pussey, Glue Destiny
13Apr - 94Ghost World, Buddy Bradley in 'Who Would You Rather Fuck: Ginger or Mary Ann?', Blue Italian Shit, Cool Your Jets, Anomalies and Curiosities of MedicineThe Buddy Bradley story is based on characters by Peter Bagge.
14no indiciaGhost World, The Goldmommy, On Sports, The Death of Dan Pussey, The Sensual Santa
15Apr - 95Ghost World, Caricature, FeldmanThe Feldman character makes an appearance in the film 'Ghost World'
16Nov - 95Ghost World, Squirrel Girl and Candy Pants, Like a Weed, Joe, MCMLXVI, Immortal Invisible
17Aug - 96Ghost World, Gynecology
18Mar - 97Ghost World, Black Nylon, Latch-Key Kid, Modern CartoonistModern Cartoonist is a pamphlet included with the comic
19May - 98David Boring, Act I
20Feb - 99David Boring, Act 2
21Feb - 00David Boring, Act 3
22Oct - 01Ice Haven
23Jun - 04Death Ray

Book collections

Ghost World was adapted by Clowes and director Terry Zwigoff into a 2001 feature film of the same name, for which Clowes and Zwigoff were nominated for an Academy Award for screenplay writing. Additionally, the 2006 Clowes/Zwigoff film Art School Confidential was loosely based on a short story of the same name which appeared in Eightball #7.

Controversy

The comic generated controversy when a high school teacher in Guilford, Connecticut gave Eightball #22 to a student as a make-up summer reading assignment. The parents of the student had concerns about the book's appropriateness. The superintendent of Guilford High School said the book was inappropriate for 13-year-olds and placed the teacher on leave. The teacher resigned before the matter was fully investigated. The Guilford school district and principal were criticized for getting police involved and trying the issue in a "kangaroo court".