Daniel Clowes - Cultural Context

Cultural Context

Clowes's most famous work is associated with the late 1980s and 1990s, a transformational time for alternative comics. Clowes's work was an important part of the explosion in the popularity of this genre and the newfound respect it garnered from critics and academics. Ghost World was among the earliest "literary" comics to be marketed and sold through conventional book stores as a graphic novel (this despite the fact that Clowes has been critical of the term "graphic novel"). His most famous work also coincides temporally with the so-called Generation X, and the post-adolescent aimlessness identified with that movement has remained one of his signature themes. He has led the way for younger comic artists like Adrian Tomine and Craig Thompson who tend to focus on post-adolescent characters and their conflicts. Like his contemporary David Lynch, Clowes is famous for mixing elements of kitsch and the grotesque in his comics, drawn in particular from 1960s pop culture, Mad, and the San Francisco underground comics scene of that era. This juxtaposition of superficial kitsch and horrific subject matter has since become something of a zeitgeist in much visual art, independent film and underground comics themselves.