Boring's Exciting Ride

By Andrew D. Arnold

You can stop holding your breath. With the release of Eightball #21, underground-comic-book artist Dan Clowes has finally brought to a close his yearlong, three-issue saga, David Boring. If you're not a comic book fan and you weren't holding your breath, you should at least know this: Boring, with its concluding issue, has proved itself a work that captures the feeling of being young and filled with ennui and living in America at the end of the 20th century.

The central plot of the series revolves around romance: Boring, a young man with a blank face, finds love with a mysterious woman named Wanda, loses her and sort-of finds her again. Boring also gets shot in the head (twice) and stranded on an island with his brutish family. Meanwhile, the world may or may not be ending soon. And did I mention that much of this is hilariously funny?

With Clowes, it has always been the mood, created by character and environmental detail, that counts. In one scene David talks with Wanda's sister at a patio table, and the wind carries the paper cups with their drinks into the bushes. It's a small, perfect detail. It adds a kinetic element to a static scene and foreshadows what the future may have in store for these two characters.

Clowes' drafting skills have improved steadily over the past 10 years--he's much better at shading than he once was and relies on it more heavily. He has also honed his talent for drawing oddball characters, such as, in this latest issue, a professor with a Vandyke beard who analyzes dirty limericks.

For those interested in comic art's potential, Clowes' work offers exciting literary possibilities (a film adaptation of one of his earlier series, Ghost World, is in production with American Beauty star Thora Birch). Boring is anything but.

--By Andrew D. Arnold