Ghost World (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Now considered one of the greatest Indy graphic novels of all-time, Ghost World was first a serialized segment running throughout  several issues of Daniel Clowes' anthology series Eightball. Ghost World ran from issues #11-17 over the time span of 1993-1997. As with many Indy comics, funding and time can be tough to obtain. Thus, that is why it took nearly 4 years to teach the coming of age story of two best friends, Enid Coleslaw and Becky Doppelmeyer.

Brunette Enid is very cynical and opinionated. She loves to play pranks and to express herself creatively. Blonde Becky on the other hand is very reserved. Considered not as pretty or smart as Enid, at least to herself, Becky is more kindhearted and willing to learn other people's perspectives in order to find her place in the world. Together, Enid and Becky are two young women fresh out of high school, attempting to navigate their looming post-high school future.

(Fun Fact: the name Enid Coleslaw is an anagram for Daniel Clowes, who in many ways saw the young girl as a personification of himself and his views on life.)

In 1997 Ghost World was finally compiled into graphic novel form by Fantagraphics where it began to garnish more mainstream attention. But what sent Ghost World into the stratosphere was a 2001 motion picture adaptation starring Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson. The film was made for a moderate price of $7 million dollars. It co-stars Steve Buscemi, Debra Azar, Bob Balaban and the late Brad Renfro. Directed by Crumb's Terry Zwigoff, who co-wrote the screenplay with Clowes., the film is a rather tight adaptation, though a few characters in the film are composites of those in the comic.

Unfortunately, the movie, released by United Artists, only made about $9 million dollars in theaters. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Ghost World was a critical hit. It later garnished cult film status and is regarded by many as one of the best comic book movies of all-time. Ghost World was added to the Criterion Collection in 2017.

As for the graphic novel, it too is considered a masterpiece. It reads more as a series of vignettes than as a long-form cohesive story, as many key events in Enid and Becky's final Summer before womanhood are never seen; just mentioned in passing. In 1998 it won an Ignatz Award for Best Graphic Novel. Ghost World now ranks up there with Maus and Watchmen on many experts top lists of greatest graphic novels and comics of all-time. The success of the graphic novel and film adaptation of Ghost World have elevated Daniel Clowes as one of history's greatest Indy comics creators, culminating in a coveted Inkpot Award in 2006.

Completing this review completes Task #45 (A Comic or Graphic Novel Made Into a Movie) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Wilson

When it's just a series of vignettes, this graphic novel is absolutely great. It's almost like Daniel Clowes made his version of a mid-aged Charlie Brown reflecting on the ways his life didn't turn out so great. If you look at the main character Wilson from profile, he's got a big, fat round head with a tuft of hair at the front of his head that looks just like Charlie Brown. Wilson has a puppy dog that looks like a beagle. And when you see Wilson showing blissful affection for the baseball field where he played little league, there's no question that this is Clowes doing Peanuts without getting in trouble for copyright infringement! 

After I learned that Daniel Clowes' reading of a biography about Charles Schulz was part of the inspiration for this book, I think I hit the nail on the head. Another inspiration for Wilson was Clowes' experience of his father's terminal cancer. It's at the point that the story becomes less a series of one-pagers, that could be read separately, and now into a story about Wilson trying to find his ex-wife and his daughter that was given up for adoption. And here is where Wilson loses its charm.

I guess you could imagine that Wilson's ex-wife is Peppermint Patty or Lucy. However, as Wilson becomes more of a narrative, the mystique that this book is about an aging Charlie Brown diminishes. See the artwork changes with every page. Sometimes it's realistic. Sometimes it's a cartoon. When Wilson begins like we're seeing the different faces of the main character with each changing page. Having the story become more linear abolishes that innovative beginning. After Wilson's father dies, it feels like a totally different book and I just wasn't a fan of that second act.

The works of Daniel Clowes are like the films of Wes Anderson. It's stylized. Formulaic. The work of an auteur. It's also not everyone's cup of tea. To me, Daniel Clowes stuff is like bubble tea. I love the creamy, sweet top part, mixed with giant tapioca pearls. But once I am through with the liquid, there's all these extra pearls that I just get tired of. That's what happened to me by the time I got to the final 77th page of this Drawn & Quarterly published graphic novel. 

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.