This work is the epitome of self-indulgent nonsensical puffery. Out of some forty pages maybe ten are worth someone’s time. These are short stories, mostly snippets of biographical nonsensical non-events about Andy and Louie, shiftless juvenile idlers. Almost every brief episode has neither plot nor ending: POOF—what was that about? Clowes, it is so, so sad when dementia manifests early, sabotaging mental acuity even before middle-age crisis has had a chance to enter the picture! Really excellent deconstruction of the Superhero genre, perhaps the most unblinking dissection to date. Andy's a teenager who discovers that smoking gives him super strength, thanks to his dad's experiments on him, and his dad also left him with a death-ray that absolutely obliterates whatever it's pointed at. However, Andy's no Peter Parker. Sometimes funny, sometimes horrifying, this book provides probably a more clear picture of how a teen might end up using that sort of power than anything else has. Superhero fans might not like it much, but it's a great book.
What do You think about Eightball #23 (2004)?
reading a new Clowes book is like getting a punch in the teeth.
—Seymour
Clowes keeps getting better and surer and darker and funnier.
—Chris
