Monica

As noted in the supplied marketing material, this reads like a culmination of Clowes career for the fans, myself included, who have been reading him since the earliest Eightball days. The artwork, it always goes without saying, it gorgeous, thoughtful, unimpeachable. Each reader will have their own opinions on the various stories and how they interact with each other - but I was particularly drawn to the through-point of the father figure, and the looming sense of chaos/apocalyptic fervor that surrounds the edges of each story.

Highly recommended and I will certainly be buying a copy to read over again and cherish.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Fantagraphics for an advanced copy of this new graphic novel by a true master of the medium.

Being old I have been reading comics for a long time. I never thought while reading X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, one of the first graphic novels I read, purchased I think for $5.95 which was crazy, that sometime in the future, graphic novels would be the primary way most people read comics, in print or on-line. Also as a long time comic book reader I would like to say that I have been aware of Daniel Clowes since his days at Cracked, and have a pristine copy of Lloyd Llewellyn in my comic stacks. While I knew about Fantagraphics I wasn't a big independent comic guy, not until my tastes started to broaden. I think I might have a few Eightball comics, or I read them, but I probably knew Clowes better from his album covers than anything else. Ghost World was my first comic read, and the story hit me hard. The art, the way Clowes could tell a story, the way he could focus in on odd moments. From here I was hooked. Monica by Clowes, is a long work in progress, sharing the life of a woman from before she was born, up until a little before now, and the characters that influenced, and shaped her.

Monica starts in Vietnam, with two buddies thinking about the future. One is sure that is will end in fire, the other just wants to get home to his girlfriend, Penny. Penny has moved on from Johnny, and is living with a bohemian artist, who leaves Penny, either trying to find himself, or being lost in himself just as Penny realizes she is pregnant with Monica. Monica's first years are spent as a wanderer, traveling from boyfriend to boyfriend, while Monica grows up alone, and very lost. Johnny and Penny bump into each other, things seem to be going great, until the night before her wedding to Johnny, Penny disappears leaving Monica with her parents. Years pass, Johnny passes, Monica starts a successful business, joins a cult who lives on dumpster diving in an effort to find her mother, all while looking for something to make her feel whole. Which she might find in a radio, or the man sharing the AirBnB with her.

The graphic novel is made up of chapters that tell a story in a variety of different ways. Many told in a sort of comic trope style. There is a war story, an origin story, a hero doubting herself story, a mystic story, even a little Gaiman or Moore tossed in. Monica is a very rich character, with a lot of problems, not knowing where she came from, abandoned by a Mother she loves, and a boyfriend who breaks up with her, when Johnny has also just died. As in life, things happen with no reasons why. As much as we try to figure out a reason, bad things, odd things, just happen, and there is never an explanation. The art is just beautiful. Lush colors, odd motions, fully drawn characters, weird things in the background. Panels are designed to highlight the art, or the story, depending on what is needed. One of the best things that Clowes has ever committed to paper.

A work that makes one think, which is a very good thing. Some things happen that well just happen, and not everything works out. Like life. A really wonderful work that should just sweep the Eisner's next year. Fans will enjoy it, and new readers will become fans for life.

A stunning tour de force, even by Clowes' absurdly high standards. He deftly jumps from genre to genre, exploiting each without ever bowing to their demands as he unlocks one puzzle box after another (with one strange, tantalizing, and dark thread left, perhaps, dangling), leading to a crushing but -- in retrospect -- inevitable conclusion. A flat out masterpiece.

Many, many thanks to NetGalley and Fantagraphics for the ARC!

What a complete and utter mental hijacking. I can't stop thinking about it, and as soon as I finished it the first time, I immediately began reading it again. The degree of foreshadowing involved had my mind spinning.

Monica is about a woman who has been abandoned at all stages of her life through death, loss, and personal hangups (but most notably by her mother leaving her with her grandparents and never coming back) who, despite that, made it to success and middle age only to continuously revisit that old childhood trauma: who is her father and why did her mother leave her? She gives away all of her earthly possessions outside of her old Toyota and the little cash necessary to keep her afloat as she goes on a deep dive into the past to move on in her future.

Then it gets... Weird. "Hold onto your butts." You're in for a ride.

The comic is stylized similar to that of vintage semi-realism Sunday comic strips and is a blend of several genres across nine chapters. It spans decades from the jungles of Vietnam to the corporate offices of 2023: nifty time travel in 112 pages.

I really, really enjoyed it, and I can't wait until it's published. I have so many people who will love it.

I'm not going to lie...I didn't "get" it. But I enjoyed the hell out of it anyway. Clowes just really sucks you into this crazy, bonkers story that spreads throughout Monica's life. Each section is an interconnected but separate story that comes together in a bizarre conclusion. I could barely grasp what was happening when I was assaulted by a new story, a new complication, a new weird turn. I can't even begin to summarize the plot, but can say with all confidence that it was worth reading and I was thoroughly entertained and engaged while I watched Clowes do his thing.

If you loved the classics of the intellectual American graphic novels like "Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth", and "Black Hole", then you're in for a treat. This bends reality and perception, trauma, coping mechanism, surrealism, deep human psychology, cult, speculative, lonliness, myth and crushes the American dream under it's heel.
There is so much in those pages and it will grip you hard and leave you dazed. Prepare for an experience that will hurt, but also leave you feeling like you got something big handed to you and you need time to process and analyze and grow.

Daniel Clowes is at his best when he takes on a project that is both small (one woman looking for her parents and finding her own identity) and large (major societal shifts, conspiracy theories, cults). The ending came out of nowhere but all the threads leading up to it were resolved satisfactorily.