Clowes, Daniel. Ghost World. 1998.

ALWAYS READ THE BOOK BEFORE SEEING THE MOVIE

I was impressed by this book because it is a comic book without (titillating) sex, violence, superheros, aliens, or jokes. In fact, it is surprisingly tedious in the minutiae of its realism, but by doing something unexpectedly subtle with the medium, Ghost World demonstrates comics' literary potential.

I'd never seen a comic book about feelings and relationships before, and it is by turns touching, funny, vulgar, sad, and plausible. The story is that of a best friendship between two cynical and alienated teenage women graduating from high school. It seems to move at first through slim, inconsequential episodes. Then a terrible, ordinary secret is revealed, which seems to eat through the friendship. This process is reflected in the narrative gaining a jumpcut momentum into shorter, more consequential episodes, finally ending abruptly in dissolution and tragedy so minor its sadness is amplified by the fact of its ordinary, inevitability.