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dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
Caricature is a collection of nine tales written and drawn by Dan Clowes. Someone on twitter commented this was the turning point for Clowes, when he stopped fucking around and started doing more introspective, serious stories. I'll take his word for.
These stories had less silliness and sf/fantasy elements and a lot more grounded, angsty, existential elements. It's all drawn in the trademark Dan Clowes style, which you either love or hate. I've dug it since seeing his Uggly Family series in Cracked decades ago. I'd say the title story or The Gynecologist were my favorites but there wasn't a dud in the bunch.
These stories had less silliness and sf/fantasy elements and a lot more grounded, angsty, existential elements. It's all drawn in the trademark Dan Clowes style, which you either love or hate. I've dug it since seeing his Uggly Family series in Cracked decades ago. I'd say the title story or The Gynecologist were my favorites but there wasn't a dud in the bunch.
rebeccacider's review against another edition
3.0
No Ghost World, but pretty good. I enjoyed reading something else by Clowes.
tomhill's review against another edition
4.0
I've only recently begun to realize what a powerful form of literature graphic novels (or as Daniel Clowes would probably prefer: cartoons) can be. There are various quotes on the back of this book that sum up Clowes's work better than I can. It mentions "emotional resonance," "mordant humor," the exploration of "the tedium and mystery of contemporary American life." All nine stories here accomplish those things, I think. My favorite is probably the title story which follows a lonely caricature artist as he travels the country working county fairs and the like, and the brief friendship he shares with an equally lonely young women. Also excellent are "Like A Weed, Joe" and "Immortal, Invisible" both of which are melancholy reflections on lonely early teenage years. "Gynecology" is strange and kind of meandering, but also up there. All of the stories are above average and feature a distinct visual style and tone. There is this interesting nostalgia at work in so many of the stories. Mostly young people, often male, looking back at sad or lonely or distressing periods of their life with a kind of fondness. Maybe that's just the interpretation I brought to the reading. I also realize that I may have a blind spot when it comes to the stories in the collection, which are told almost exclusively from a male perspective that may be present even in the one story told from a woman's point of view.
puhnner's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Hilariously drawn and plotted. Always torn between laughing and crying with the absurdity and pathos. I love his work.
karenchase's review against another edition
3.0
My husband gave me this book and about halfway through he noticed I was reading it and asked me if I liked it. I had to answer honestly—it really isn’t my cuppa. I usually enjoy graphics, but first of all this is a set of short pieces, and I generally don’t connect to short fiction as a genre. Secondly, these pieces ooze a masculinity that could be described as toxic if the characters didn’t seem so hangdog and pathetic. The narrator’s voice in my head (in every story, even the one where the protagonist is a woman) sounded like a kind of nasally monotone, droning on about the random nothingness of his life. I shouldn’t be surprised that all the stories touched on aspects of sexuality, some more graphic than others, but a frustrated or repressed or just fucked up sex life seems to be a central preoccupation for most of these men. All in all it was fairly dreary, and even though it is a slim volume, it took me a while to read because I had to intersperse the reading with other stuff to get through it. I did it because I love my husband and I’m touched when he buys books for me.
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/800474.html[return][return]Caricatures bills itself as "nine stories", but in fact they are more extended character studies than actual narratives. I love the way Clowes takes us into his characters' worlds, and at the same time using the graphic medium, we can get an idea of how other people are reacting to them. Most of his viewpoint characters are male, though there is one sequence, "Green Eyeliner", with a female lead.[return][return]Almost all of the stories involve either experiencing or reliving an unhappy and isolated adolescence, and this could get old rather quickly, but I think he rings the changes on the theme with enough diversity to keep you engaged.[return][return]The one piece I found I had doubts about was the last, "Black Nylon", whose protagonist likes to dress up as a superhero; it wasn't obvious to me if he was a nutter in our world, where there are no costumed superheroes, or if he was a nutter in the standard comics setting where superheroes are a facet of daily life. I think it is probably the latter, in which case the piece jars with the naturalistic setting of the rest of the book. Playing such games with the reader is risky, but usually Clowes does pull it off, and the story (such as it is) often turns out to be about something different from what we first think it is going to be.
levitybooks's review against another edition
4.0
Not his best, but my second favorite by Clowes.
While I can't fit this into my David Lynch film comparisons (see David Boring review), I've realized another interesting way to view Clowes's work is to arrange them in the order of the life period of the protagonist:
0. Ice Haven & Twentieth Century Eightball: not included as no narrative perspective
1. Caricature: early teenager (11-15)
2. Ghostworld: mid teenager (15-18)
3. Like A Velvet Glove : late teenager (18-20)
4. David Boring: young adult (21-24)
5. Mister Wonderful: mid adult (25-30)
6. Patience: mid adult (30-40)
7. Wilson: late adult (50+)
By doing this it allows you to reflect on how his protagonist's perspectives mature as they age, most easily with respect to their idea of love and happiness.
Moving through 1-7 from the list above, the male characters become progressively less upset, defined more by what they do rather than how they feel (and therein become more flat), less bitter about women (excluding Wilson), become more obnoxious to the reader, and become more capable of initiating the plot events.
Moving from 1-7, the characters seem to resemble each age group written in parentheses. Surprisingly, the blurb on the back relating Caricature to Catcher In The Rye is actually pretty accurate. By comparison, Ghostworld has more boredom and danger, Like A Velvet Glove has more psychological instability, David Boring has more desperation, Mister Wonderful has less bitterness and dishonesty, Patience more assertiveness and dedication, and finally Wilson demonstrates that despite all the progress in that journey from childhood to adulthood your midlife crisis will still turn you into an asshole.
Here's to growing up!
While I can't fit this into my David Lynch film comparisons (see David Boring review), I've realized another interesting way to view Clowes's work is to arrange them in the order of the life period of the protagonist:
0. Ice Haven & Twentieth Century Eightball: not included as no narrative perspective
1. Caricature: early teenager (11-15)
2. Ghostworld: mid teenager (15-18)
3. Like A Velvet Glove : late teenager (18-20)
4. David Boring: young adult (21-24)
5. Mister Wonderful: mid adult (25-30)
6. Patience: mid adult (30-40)
7. Wilson: late adult (50+)
By doing this it allows you to reflect on how his protagonist's perspectives mature as they age, most easily with respect to their idea of love and happiness.
Moving through 1-7 from the list above, the male characters become progressively less upset, defined more by what they do rather than how they feel (and therein become more flat), less bitter about women (excluding Wilson), become more obnoxious to the reader, and become more capable of initiating the plot events.
Moving from 1-7, the characters seem to resemble each age group written in parentheses. Surprisingly, the blurb on the back relating Caricature to Catcher In The Rye is actually pretty accurate. By comparison, Ghostworld has more boredom and danger, Like A Velvet Glove has more psychological instability, David Boring has more desperation, Mister Wonderful has less bitterness and dishonesty, Patience more assertiveness and dedication, and finally Wilson demonstrates that despite all the progress in that journey from childhood to adulthood your midlife crisis will still turn you into an asshole.
Here's to growing up!
peel_acres's review against another edition
3.0
Good collection of Clowes short stories featuring the usual collection of oddballs and misfits. I found this collection a little hit and miss however. I really like Caricature, Like A Weed, Joe, Green Eyeliner and Gynecology but struggled to invest in the likes of Blue Italian Suit, MCMLXVI etc. I couldn't fault the artwork anywhere in the book however.
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