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Ghost World

An interview with comic book artist Dan Clowes

By Margarita Rossi

I went to this year's Alternative Press Expo on February 9th in San Francisco, hoping against hope that I would be able to meet and interview at least one of my favorite comic artists. Much to my surprise and delight I got to interview Dan Clowes, the graphic novelist I admire most. Clowes is the author of the comic Eightball and the graphic novels David Boring and Ghost World.

In the world of comics he is considered to be one of the best — if not the best — artist in the biz. His works are incredibly detailed in writing and art, and the action takes place in the particular universe of each story. The characters he creates are usually misfits who provoke both empathy and revulsion, usually because they embody characteristics that are all too common in ourselves.

When I read Ghost World I was captivated by the story of two potty mouthed, independent girls who were just as restless and frustrated as I am in this insanely inane world of modern day America. It was the first time I saw girls who act and think like me portrayed in media. I guess others must feel the same way, because Ghost World was adapted into a film, and that film is now up for an Oscar for "Best Adapted Screenplay."

I have read most of Clowes' works, and it seems they get better and more enthralling with each new book. So you can imagine how I felt when he consented to an interview.

Youth Radio: So how long have you been drawing comics?

Dan Clowes: Since I was four years old, so that would be 36 years.

YR: What elements would you say make a good comic?

DC: An interesting story, just like any other medium, a movie or a book or anything else.

YR: So what comics did you read as a kid?

DC: I read Superman comics and Ritchie Rich and Archie and stuff like that, dumb comics that they still make for dumb kids.

YR: I get the impression that, with the exception of super hero comic books, comics now are really read more by adults than kids. And I wonder if you agree and if you have any ideas as to why that is or why that isn't?

DC: I just think the audience for comics is adults 'cause they're the ones that grew up reading comics and kids today have so many other things to hold their interest like video games and cable TV…when I was a kid all we had was black and white TV and it was only on 'til ten o'clock at night and so we were lucky to have the comics. So I think it's just people who remember them from childhood.

YR: You wrote in your little leaflet in Eightball that comics are really the only real auteur medium and I think that that's very true and that's what draws me and a lot of other young people I know… so what are you trying to do to reach out to kids to try to get them involved in comics or —

DC: Absolutely nothing at all, just —

YR: Writing great stories like Ghost World!

DC: Yeah, that's what I mean. I'm trying to do stories that people would be interested in of all ages and I'm always happy when kids, teenagers especially, like what I'm doing and if they like it maybe they'll do something good too or try to do something interesting.

YR: With Ghost World, how did the genesis of the Enid and Rebecca characters come about — because you're not a teenage girl.

DC: They were composites of girls I went to high school with and went to art school with… I realized there was this type of girl that I really liked that you'd never see in a film, you'd never see this kind of girl who really speaks her mind and people see those characters as being much more male than female and I thought, "I know a lot of girls who swear much more intensely than any boy I know," and I just thought that that was something that needed to be in stories, in comics and film.

YR: So with the debut of the Ghost World movie, how do you feel hitting the mainstream? How do you feel about your stuff being viewed by so many people and what reactions have you gotten?

DC: I mean, Ghost World did a lot better than any comic would do, but it was hardly a mainstream hit, it was a very small thing to most of America. But it did get out to people who would never read my comics…it was really interesting to see the response 'cause a lot of the responses were like, "These characters are so weird, I'd never see anybody like this," and I thought that these were all very natural characters. These are all based on people I know and they're not at all outlandish, whereas a guy like Arnold Schwarzenegger in a movie is extremely outlandish, nobody knows anybody like him and yet that's not thought of as weird at all. So it was odd for me.

— Margarita Rossi is an 18-year-old with an MTV phobia living in San Francisco.