daniel clowes like a velvet glove cast in iron

When you blur your focus, however, instead of a fuzzy three-dimensional Tyrannosaurus Rex, a sweat-soaked Möbius strip pops into view. The entire book operates like a kind of literary Magic Eye image. The answer, sometimes frustratingly, is nothing. Halfway through the book, one can't help but wonder what the Cousin It dog with no orifices has to do with the man with two bacteria-eating shrimp for eyes. Even identifying the underlying plot threads laced throughout the seemingly random sequence of events might require a rereading or two. Of course, none of it makes any sense - at least not concretely. Clearly influenced by David Lynch's BLUE VELVET, Clowes presents a strange world that becomes suffocatingly unsettling as Clay, the main character, finds himself sinking into his search for a woman from his past.

For those who know Clowes only through GHOST WORLD, LIKE A VELVET GLOVE CAST IN IRON will be quite a shock.Ĭollected from its original run in EIGHTBALL, this graphic novel presents some of the most tautly woven and labyrinthine surrealism in the comics medium (which is to say, it's mighty strange). No nudity, no sex: only undeniable, disturbing perversion. Instead of calming entertainment, though, the daydream of choice is a few reels of surrealist pornography. With this scenario begins Daniel Clowes' LIKE A VELVET GLOVE CAST IN IRON. In the outside world, he says, people go about their business chaotically there is a constant urge to find release, and so they stop, gather in a dark room with strangers for two hours, and collectively daydream. One of my favorite filmmakers, AUGUST ON THE WATER's Sogo Ishii, aside from being a talented director, has an astoundingly elegant understanding of the pleasures of film.

Daniel clowes like a velvet glove cast in iron