David Boring

Clowes artwork on David Boring is, as usual, immaculate and he consistently manages to draw characters whose faces emote a sense of ennui yet manage to evoke in me a feeling of compassion that borders on pity. This interplay intrigues me in that it serves to both endear and distance me to almost every major player in the book. Whether or not that feature of Clowes' art best serves the narrative, and whether it should, remains left to the individual. For me, the result is a positive and heightens the slightly surreal nature of Boring's world. Stripped down, David Boring is a love story. Artfully dressed up by Clowes' craftsmanship, however, the standard love story is complicated by all manner of fixation, fetishism and obsessiveness in addition to the possible end of the world. As a character, David Boring's only remarkable traits are his fetish for fat-bottomed girls and the single issue of his father's comic that he happens to own. This sexual fetish leads to expected relationship problems as David constantly risks letting his obsession for the physical overshadow any and all other aspects of his relationships with women. David's fetish for his father's comic, and subsequent obsession to learn about the man from the remaining scraps of his work, leads to one to speculate about the triadic, feedback-loop-like relationship between creator, creation and reader. And so this theme of destructive fetishism runs rampant through David Boring as Clowes explores various characters, their fetishes and the nuanced situations that result from such behavior. Clowes fetishists include: Boring, Boring's best friend Dot (whose obsession is saved for a graceful and quiet denouement), Boring's girlfriend Wanda, Wanda's lover, the Professor, Boring's mother and possibly Boring's father (although I haven't looked too closely at this possibility). The plot is set against a backdrop of impending world destruction by terrorists. Nice, huh? Come to think of it, terrorist activity may be viewed as a type of destructive fetishism whose idealistic single-mindedness overlooks the complexities of the world. This backdrop, though, allows Clowes a surreal, albeit convenient, way in which to resolve his story while pardoning any remaining social mores his characters may breech during the resolution process. Clowes always delivers quality art and story. If you're already a fan of comix, you know this. If you've yet to sample the delights of graphic novels you'd do well to jump in right away with David Boring.

The whole story is set against the year of 1999, leading to its end. The threat of a terrorist act and killings underscore the human follies of this funny, but sad story. The cataclysmic apocalypse of the world takes a secondary importance to being left over by love, in loneliness. A very lyrical and interesting juxtaposition. Daniel Clowes has a tremendous gift as a storyteller, and in this comic book, he conscientiously chooses the 3-act screenplay form, both using it as a legitimate vehicle for his story and also as a deconstructive techinique. His characters are wonderfully three-dimensional, and the way they go in and out of love is always shown through a sympathetic, but detached view. The mistakes the characters make, the yearnings and losses... approximate the real human experience. The ending is a hopeful one - even as the end-time seems to be near, another possibility of love keeps David Boring afloat. Although Chris Ware seems to have caught the public and critical acclaim, when it comes to telling stories of modern alienation, there is no graphic artist to best Daniel Clowes. Not yet. Impressive.

Falling halfway between the surrealism of "Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron" and the realism of "Ghostworld", David Boring is a story about a young man who, on the one hand, has an inability to adapt to change because of his obsessiveness, but who nevertheless remains stable no matter what is thrown at him because of his very faults (although that means remaining constantly dissatisfied with life). I don't believe that David Boring (whose name I assume is a nod to the great Superman artist of the 1950s Wayne Boring) is meant to be as interesting as the events around him, but is meant to illustrate a person stuck in a rut no matter what goes on around him. Instead of moving on to a new girlfriend, for example, he continues to obsess about the one who has just dumped him, and instead of living his own life, he obsesses about his father through his old Yellow Streak comics. What makes this story depressing is that many of us can see a little of ourselves in David Boring. But underneath it all, David Boring is, at least, a survivor. It is this sort of imposed self-examination that makes this an important and effecting work of literature and the accompanying artwork by Clowes is simple but moody and emotional.

this is a tour de force in the way that eraserhead or blue velvet is--a romp on the wild surreal side, though grounded in hyperrealism of sad sack lives, prurience, lust, obsession, crime, madness, war--you know the good things in life that keep the NRA in business and scared folks at home behind gated windows and locked doors. the focus of this bizarre yet well-told tale is a sex-obsessed slacker in some make-believe dystopia who has a lesbian roommate, the hots for a stranger, and a tortured relationship with his mother. so many themes swirl about here, and adding to the confusion are the jumpcuts in time and narrative panels. the most touching and heart-felt panels are those involving a comic book--yellow streak-- that his long-gone father had drawn. a great gift for all david lynch fans and those who endured the film "pi"; the drawing and graphic appeal here are top-drawer.

Daniel Clowes has outdone himself in this volume,collecting and improving upon the three part story David Boring.This is a challenging saga of a young man's attempt to organize his reality into a sort of personal movie,with himself as the protagonist.He deals obsessively with love and lust,and other human relationships with confusion.The focus on David and his love life is framed with a description of a violent and unpredictable world,complete with murder,intrigue,and war.The meticulous drawings merit close scrutiny for the detail they contain.This is a comic that tells as much without words as it does with them.The improvements in this book (it was previously serialized in pamphlet form) include the addition of color in certain panels,and overall an excellently designed package,including dust cover,spine,endpapers,and chapter headings.This is a book that will stand up to the many readings you're sure to want to give it.If you have any doubts as to the richness and depth available in the comics medium,this book with put them to rest.