September 30, 2009

Little Enid Coleslaw

I’ve been a big fan of Dan Clowes ever since I came across Lloyd Llewellyn (Fantagraphics) around 1985 or 1986. His next ongoing comic book, Eightball, was much more flexible and open-ended, allowing Clowes an opportunity to experiment and grow as an artist, resulting in several excellent “graphic novels,” most notably Ghost World which was serialized in Eightball nos.11-18. In 1997, it was published as a monograph and was both a critical and commercial success, leading to the development of the Ghost World movie in 2001. Director Terry Zwigoff encouraged Clowes himself to write the screenplay (which was nominated for an Academy Award), allowing the film to stay fairly true to Clowes’s original vision. It is very good and boasts a fine cast, including Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson as Enid and Rebecca, with Steve Buscemi as Seymour, the creepy record collector guy. They manage to capture the look and feel of the book although I ultimately think the book is more nuanced and richly detailed. Anyway, during all the hoopla surrounding the movie, the Japanese toy company, Presspop, commissioned Clowes to design a “Little Enid” figure depicting Enid Coleslaw as a cartoony child and it is delightfully weird — the green hair makes things especially bizarre. My lovely wife gave this to me way back then and it is one of my most cherished possessions.

1 comment:

shankenstein said...

Your wife is super awesome for getting this for you. She's a hard to find doll. She's actually the last in my collection of Little Enid dolls to get.