mrjoe's review
2.0
I've been a huge fan of Clowes since buying the original Eightball comics 25 years ago. The best thing about this book was re-reading some of the stories that I hadn't seen in years. However, some of the essays made me feel like I was grading college papers. And the pages of unnecessary footnotes explaining every little detail were absurd. Thank you for telling me who the Ramones are in a footnote. WTF?
A lot of the writing sucks all of the power out of the work by overanalyzing it. A simplistic Freudian explanation of comic book themes is not what I was looking for here. And if I want Baudrillard quotes, I'll read Baudrillard. And oh, the irony of feeling like a character in a Clowes comic who is criticizing something for being trite, and that something is essays about Clowes comics.
I highly recommend reading Daniel Clowes Interviews instead: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8146365-daniel-clowes-interviews?from_search=true
A lot of the writing sucks all of the power out of the work by overanalyzing it. A simplistic Freudian explanation of comic book themes is not what I was looking for here. And if I want Baudrillard quotes, I'll read Baudrillard. And oh, the irony of feeling like a character in a Clowes comic who is criticizing something for being trite, and that something is essays about Clowes comics.
I highly recommend reading Daniel Clowes Interviews instead: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8146365-daniel-clowes-interviews?from_search=true
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