Now, I have not seen the movie, so I think this makes me a little more objective since the comic is how Clowes originally intended the work to be interpreted.| Current Issue | The Archives | Top 10 Articles | Auctions | The Shoppe |
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Art and Story By: Daniel Clowes
Published by: Fantagraphic Books
Genre: Teen Surreal Drama
It is a strange world author and illustrator of Ghost World Daniel Clowes resides. Ghost World is the comic series that spawned the movie, starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johanssen, and Steve Buscemi. Now, I have not seen the movie, so I think this makes me a little more objective since the comic is how Clowes originally intended the work to be interpreted.
Clowes' comic touts itself as the tale of real people in the real world dealing with their real feelings. The only trouble was that these real people were stranger than most people and the stories featured in this collection were just as confusing as a teenagers mind!
Ghost World is the story of two eighteen-year-old girls, Enid Cohn and Rebecca Dopplemeyer as they deal with life after high school graduation. In their struggle to find themselves, the two very cool, odd, and outgoing girls meet an array of interesting characters, including a couple that Enid swears are Satanists, a young man who worships anarchists and despots of any kind, and an old man who swears he can do astrology. The pair is completely at peace until they begin to struggle with the possibility that Enid may actually go across the country to college. Adding to their strife both Enid and Rebecca are infatuated with the same boy, named Josh--the only person who seems to view the world just like them.
Essentially, Ghost World was quite odd. The art was stark and surreal, which really did not appeal to me. The story is told in a manner that was quite erratic. At certain points I found myself wondering when the characters got from one place to another so fast? The final chapter has the characters jump approximately one month in the future, leaving me quite confused as to what I just read, thus causing me to lose sight of the entire point of the story.
Despite the fact that the characters managed to take on a life of their own, and the banter between Enid and Rebecca was absolutely delightful at points, their take on the world was too off-beat for most people to agree with, and the tenser the relationship between them got, the more you found yourself wondering how much, if anything, have you actually learned about these two character's after 80 pages?
Personally, I think that Ghost World is greatly over-rated. While the art and banter are highly notable, the story lacked any cohesion as well as a comprehendible point. Reading Ghost World only made me wonder how much better the movie may have been, and if that would have been a better investment of my time.
Send your comments and or questions about this article to jmanzano@ybfree.com.