Okay, this book was really hard for me to track down. I ordered it on amazon last year and it was out of stock and never shipped for months, so eventually I cancelled it. I finally got it not long ago from a comic shop.
I read the other reviews and I see what people mean. At first, I was confused. Then when I realized it was supposed to be bizarre and not make sense, I got into it. I liked it. The biggest complaint people seem to have is that it's not like "David Boring." I love his other books, and this one was good, but it is very different. It's very surreal and disturbing.
Seriously. I was extremely disturbed by some of the characters. My boyfriend asked me how it was and all I could say was "unsettling" and "bothersome" because it just makes you feel uncomfortable.
So yeah...be warned.

I was a fan of Ghost World and David Boring. Daniel Clowes has a knack for putting real people in a world where everything is a bit askew. This book is older than the others and reviews lead me to believe it would be a bit more insane than the other books, but I had no idea...

We follow our rather dry hero, Clay, on a bizarre odyssey as he searches for his long lost lover after recognizing her in an obscene film. Typical Clowes' formula, but Clay's path is littered with feminist warmongers, dogs with no orifices, an admirer that strongly resembles a giant potato-fish hybrid, and some of the freakiest character designs you will ever see.

The problem is the mystery, the tension, the weirdness just builds and builds and builds and there seems to be so little relief from it. The payoff just isn't satisfying. The book gave me a headache. If you enjoy Clowes' art style, there's plenty to look at here, but story-wise, it was quite disappointing. If you're new to Daniel Clowes, I suggest trying his more accessible works first.

A first glance I found this work to be engrossing, but the farther I got into the book the less sense it made. It reminded me of Charles Burns in its oddness, but then became too random and seemed more like Dada then surealism. I felt there could have been more of a tying together of the plotlines presented instead of the montage ending that left me a little more then unsatisfied. It gave a feel of "I'm tired of writting this" .
The charactors were flat compared to most of Clowes work, in truth I could not get a feel for anyone in the story. Nor did I see the big picture(if there was even one) that was presented because too little information was provided. And the any provided came across as nonsensical. It seemed like just another collection of pulp alternative work from that time. Shock value pulp at that.
I had hoped for better from one of the masters of modern comics.

After reading some of Clowes's other works, I find the guy to have unique and yet powerful storytelling. I guess his stories strike me as odd, but rather than to let them dangle, he gets them across well enough, and his art compliments the prose perfectly--like every is matter-of-fact. Take it or leave it.

So reading this, I was slapped in the face. The opening chapter reminds me of David Boring (though this was written well before the other piece), because of the kind of obsession and suggestion of fetishes. Both of these are just build ups for the story (and I should really say stories, because this is a collection of work taken from Clowes's magazine, Eightball).

I would say it's like a man lost in a surreal world, and he's trying to act normal, and do the best he can. Utterly original characters. I don't want to spoil it, but they are wildly imaginative.

I didn't give it a 5, because it was not quite a masterpiece. Plus, some parts troubled me. I thought Clowes could have ironed them out with better explanation, but using the guise of surreal, you will never know if that is his intent.

Actually, of everything of his that I read, I like 20th Century 8ball collection. The variety and emotion is staggering, and he lets it all out.