Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron

[Royal Nonesuch]

I'm a fan of Daniel Clowes, so I picked up Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron a few months back. It was easily the strangest, book I've ever read, yet it was also very engaging. I didn't know what to make of any of the weird characters, the mystery behind the smiley face emblem (the name of which escapes me right now), or if the subplot with the assassination attempt on the president was going to figure in largely by the end of the story. Wacky weird stuff, but still very interesting.

Any other thoughts?

[Michael C Lorah]

I'd have to reread it. I don't remember that much about it, although I did enjoy it. It was actually the first thing by Clowes that I'd ever read.

[Nick Wyche]

I began collecting Clowes' work with the old LLOYD LLEWELLYN magazine series. When EIGHTBALL started I kept with it, even though I found "Like A Velvet Glove..." to be inscrutable and very strange. I'm still not convinced of it's excellence to this day.
On the other hand, later works like "Caricature", "Ghost World", "Italian Blue ____", and most recently "Ice Haven" and "Death Ray" have confirmed for me Clowes' greatness. "Ice Haven" and "Death Ray" (in their original incarnations as magazine-sized issues of EIGHTBALL) are probably two of the single best comics that have ever been created.

[Nick Wyche]

Whoops... didn't know there was a censor function on this board. "Italian Blue $h!t" got turned into "Italian Blue ____". Huh, interesting.