Ghost World

Ghost World is a comic book series by author and illustrator Daniel Clowes, which was originally serialized in Clowes' comic Eight Ball, and published from 1993-1997 in issues #11-18. The comic follows main character Enid Coleslaw and her best friend Rebecca Doppelmeyer, a pair of young outcasts who wander around their nameless American town criticizing everyone around them and talking about pop culture and other relevant subjects. As the comic progresses, the girls grow into adults and eventually drift apart. Since its publication in Eight Ball, Ghost World has become a cult classic among comic lovers and intellectuals.

The comic begins with Enid Coleslaw and Rebecca (who goes by Becky) Dopplemeyer, just after their high school graduation in the early 1990s. The girls both dress in punk clothing, and they have labeled themselves as misfits. Neither of them like anything about the world they live in, and they spend most of their time criticizing the people around them and the popular culture of the 90s. The girls are aimless and skeptical, and spend their time wondering what to do with their lives.

One of the main characters, Josh, is a friend of both Becky and Enid. Enid likes to play pranks on Josh, and the two of them pretend to find him appalling, but in reality both Enid and Becky are attracted to Josh. Though the girls are straight, they sometimes cynically entertain the idea that they are both lesbians, because they are so skeptical of men and their antics. Their pseudo-intellectualism makes it hard for either Enid or Becky to admit that they like Josh, but eventually an uncomfortable love triangle forms between the trio. Becky and Josh start a relationship, and tensions rise between Enid and Becky.



Other characters include Norman, an old man in a suit who spends his days waiting at the same bus stop all day long. Eventually, curious about his history, Enid asks Norman what he is waiting for. Norman says his dead wife used to take this bus, and that he is planning to leave town eventually, to start a new life. Enid makes a snide joke with Norman about this behavior, but Enid is quite struck by Norman's grief.

Clowes himself appears as a cameo in the comic series. Enid becomes obsessed with a comic book artist named Cowes, and eventually begins to fall in love with him. Upon meeting Cowes in person, however, Enid realizes that Cowes is just a regular older man, and she starts calling him a creep and a perv for expressing any interest in her. Clowes has said in interviews that he based Enid's character off himself, and his own feelings of loneliness and isolation during his youth – Enid Coleslaw is an anagram of his own name, Daniel Clowes.

Eventually, Becky and Enid's tensions increase when Enid expresses her desire to leave town to go to college, and Becky and Josh's relationship becomes more serious. As time progresses, Becky and Josh begin to settle into their life in town, and it becomes clear that if Enid leaves, she will be leaving on her own. Enid struggles after she discovers that she didn't get into any of the colleges she applied to, and she makes the decision to leave town regardless, by packing a single suitcase and taking the same bus that Norman waited for each day. The comic ends with Enid resigning herself to a life of confusion, loneliness and aimless wandering – though she and Becky say that they will get in touch with each other and remain friends, their once easy rapport has disappeared, and it is clear that they no longer feel the same way about each other as they once did.



Clowes creates a funny cast of characters as he writes about the ultimate end of Enid and Rebecca's relationship, and their movement from their teenage years into adulthood.

Daniel Clowes is a comic book artist, screenwriter, and graphic novelist from Chicago, Illinois. He has written Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Ghost World, and David Boring, among other graphic novels. He has also published a number of cartoons in a variety of prominent magazines and newspapers. Ghost World was optioned for a full-length film, which was released in 2006 as Art School Confidential. Clowes has won over a dozen Eisner and Harvey awards for his cartooning, and has been nominated for an Academy Award, among other literary honors.