The creator of Ghost World eviscerates American culture.

Before the Ghost World graphic novel and film propelled Daniel Clowes to international superstardom as the preeminent cartoonist of his generation, his ongoing comic book Eightball was already the most talked-about series of the 1990s. Renowned for its gleefully incisive social satire and riotous absurdity, Entertainment Weekly proclaimed it "the year's best regularly published comic book" upon its debut in 1989. The Village Voice proclaimed it "brilliant," and Art Spiegelman called it "curdlingly good." Simpsons creator Matt Groening has repeatedly called it his favorite comic book.

20th Century Eightball collects the very best humor strips from Eightball, written and drawn between 1988 and 1996. Included within are such seminal strips/rants as "I Hate You Deeply," "Sexual Frustration," "Ugly Girls," "Why I Hate Christians," "Message to the People of the Future," "Paranoid," "My Suicide," "Chicago," and over three dozen more. Other favorites include "Art School Confidential," one of Clowes' most popular strips of all-time: it was recently optioned as a major motion picture by Drew Barrymore, with a screenplay by Ghost World's Clowes and Terry Zwigoff. Also included is Clowes' hilariously Freudian deconstruction of professional athletes, "On Sports," which caused a stir in San Antonio last year when reprinted in the city's most popular weekly paper, prompting an advertising boycott and demands for the paper to be destroyed by local sports fans. Noted comics historian Roger Sabin, author of Phaidon's Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels, calls 20th Century Eightball a "corrosively satirical vision of an America cracking apart, and confirms Clowes as a worthy successor to the underground greats of the 1960s." 40 pages in color, fully illustrated.

"Many of the pieces are tirades, albeit entertaining ones, about things Clowes despises....Worthwhile enough, these earlier stories merely presage Clowes' far-more-impressive recent work in which cynicism is presented more subtly, leavened with sympathy, and voiced by well-developed characters. If these pieces lack the heft of Clowes' longer, more ambitious efforts, the best of them are still masterful miniatures." Gordon Flagg, Booklist

"Clowes' reputation is based on writing the graphic equivalent of literary short stories and novels; these are the kinds of stories that would have made the New Yorker were it not for the pictures....The best are easily as testily thoughtful and revealing as Clowes' works of fiction. And if they aren't concerned with creating sustained narrative story lines, taken together they do tell us a lot about character — though the character revealed most is Daniel Clowes....Despite (or perhaps because of) [their] relentless nihilism, many of Clowes' strips are scathingly, brilliantly funny....But for all his cynicism, Clowes offers many moments of compassion, even beauty." Amy Benfer, Salon.com

A collection of short comics depicting the artist's opinions and views on a variety of topics, including people he dislikes and things that annoy him.

Trailing the success of the movie based on Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World (1997) comes this collection of shorter stories from his alternative comic book Eightball. Many of the pieces are tirades, albeit entertaining ones, about things Clowes despises (perhaps the comic should have been called Hateball). On Sports details his contempt for professional athletics, and Art School Confidential is an expose of pretentious, talentless poseurs. This approach is carried to its logical peak in I Hate You Deeply, a litany of the types that annoy Clowes, from fashion plates to crybabies, whiners, and sensitive people. Clowes puts his misanthropy in abeyance for slice-of-life stories in which he ruminates during a stroll around his neighborhood or fantasizes about his fellow passengers on a subway. Worthwhile enough, these earlier stories merely presage Clowes' far-more-impressive recent work in which cynicism is presented more subtly, leavened with sympathy, and voiced by well-developed characters. If these pieces lack the heft of Clowes' longer, more ambitious efforts, the best of them are still masterful miniatures.

Before the "Ghost World" graphic novel and film, Daniel Clowes's comic book "Eightball" was already the most talked-about series of the 1990s. This new anthology collects the very best humor strips of "Eightball, " written and drawn between 1988 and 1996.

Dan Clowes, a multi-Harvey, Eisner and Ignatz Award-winner, is a Chicago native living in Oakland, CA, with his wife Erika.