Ray Pride

Among contemporary comic artists, Dan Clowes remains one of the most discerning about the secret places of both his characters and his readers. In his continuing "Eightball" series (Fantagraphics Books), Clowes has consistently etched memorable, funny, tart and exacting portraits of the idful inner and outer rages of all sorts of contemporary types; from self-pitying nerds ("Dan Pussey") to teenage girls with all the imagined vivacity usually afforded teenage boys (the memorable "Ghost World").

Clowes' most recent cycle, "David Boring," has just been handsomely pressed between hard covers. It suits just right to read Clowes out of sequence as I did in my first exposure to the tale; the zigzagging between chronologies echoes the way Clowes turns the order of memory, desire and regret inside out. Like other artists, Clowes would surely smile wryly if I attempted to draw out the influences murmuring beneath his distinctive drawing style. In many of his panels, there is boldness, a sculpted chiaroscuro in vision and sentiment that has an insolent depth, reminiscent of older artists like Will Eisner or many of the Mad magazine maniacs, yet there is delicacy, too. The contours of the frames are surely proof of a cartoonist's monomania, as well as an unrelenting attention to detail: The work is his own.

David Boring, born 1978, is the son of a 1950s cartoonist. Twenty-years-old when the story unfurls, he's moved to a large city where he lives with Dot, his lesbian roommate. Once the plot kicks in, it's a rash jumble, both reckless and pensive. "I am cursed by two things," he tells us after one particular sexual conquest, "An unsympathetic eye for perfection and a blossoming knowledge of my own feminine ideal... the head... smallish and ovoid, leading with a particular tilt to an extend neck... smallish round breasts; a convex stomach dividing powerful hips which, from side to back, described a meaty semicircle; proceeding downward to thick, girlish legs and insignificant feet."

Reading David's story, my attention didn't flag, but I was tempted to jump around to catch a panel's urgency, or random shards of David's alternately horrible, self-abasing view of the world and himself. As a whole, David genuinely succeeds at reconciling his memories, tastes passed down by his parents, his fantasies and a conflicted but real sex life. Clowes has captured a mood of acquiescent melancholy. David is a sensitive introvert; not quite an artist type, and not quite implausible, either. Clowes' worlds are stylized and precise, but he also walks down the same streets we do. Keep walking or get indoors? Clowes does both.

"David Boring"
by Daniel Clowes
Pantheon, $24.95, 117 pages (2000-11-09)

Also by Ray Pride

INTIMATE LIGHTNING
Director James Gray follows up his intent, earnest gangster drama, "Little Odessa," with another stark, generously paced drama (written with Matt Reeves) with its story of young men seething with betrayal in working-class environs.
(2000-11-02)

AMERICAN POP
The kick-crazed decamillion-dollar girl caper "Charlie's Angels" is not a movie for people who take themselves seriously. Smart dumb fun, it's as much like a classic American musical as it is a genuine Hong Kong martial arts vehicle.
(2000-11-02)

TICKLE ME DEADLY
"Bedazzled," he's taken on "Matrix" cinematographer Bill Pope and "Sleepy Hollow" production designer Rick Heinrichs: thoughtful situations, belly laughs and a good-looking image. Can this be comedy?
(2000-10-19)

WEST IS EAST
Vancouver may be the most filmmaker-intensive festival I've ever attended. While more than 200 features were presented, its distance from the white-hot center of events like Toronto or Sundance allows for a level of conversation that doesn't require shouting or the hum of buzz.
(2000-10-12)

THE FODDER OF OUR COUNTRY
(2000-10-05)

HOW THE FEST WAS WON
(2000-10-05)

DIRTY LOOKS & SMILES
(2000-10-05)

RAGING HORMONES
(2000-09-28)

THE WHITE ALBUM
(2000-09-14)

IN THE COMPANY OF RENEE
(2000-09-07)

VOICES CARRY
(2000-08-24)

BENT
(2000-08-17)

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