Eightball is the spring from which flows the genius of
Dan Clowes. Most famously, the
Ghost World stories first appeared in Eightball, before being combined into a
graphic novel. Clowes' other triumphant Eightball characters include the Rat Pack wannabe private eye
Lloyd Llewellyn and ass aficianado
David Boring. The comic is published by
Fantagraphics.
Underground comics are a dime a dozen, and
any asshole with access to a Kinko's and a charge account can make one. Eightball is better than all that shit - even, in some respects, better than the more well known names. Clowes has more depth than
Robert Crumb when he's deep, and more wit than
the Hernandez brothers when he's funny. The serious stories are what
Optic Nerve would be with better plots and without modelling its characters on the cast of
MTV's Undressed. The art can be a thousand shades between dreary and silly, though it's all the same hand.
It's one of the best
underground comics currently being produced, and you'd do well to find yourself an issue.