Tormented by grief, Jack devotes himself to finding the killer. It's troubling to find Clowes using the gambit.Ĭlowes does create another lonely, obsessed male character here, but instead of brooding endlessly over the woman he's lost, Jack does something to help her. In fact, she's been 'fridged,' to use feminists' term for a female character senselessly killed in order to provide an impetus for the rest of the story. Then Jack comes home to find Patience has been murdered. He adds, 'I already love the baby so much I can't stand it.' They're worried about money, but it feels like anything's possible. kills me!' Jack says he doesn't want to hear about Patience's life before they met. 'She's going to feel loved and secure and protected if it. 'I will not let my baby grow up like I did,' Patience reflects. Patience begins with a rare (for Clowes) few moments of happiness for the characters: Patience has just discovered she's pregnant.

In the course of his quest he and the reader get an intimate, heartbreaking portrait of Patience, Jack's one and only love. Clowes does create another lonely, obsessed male character here, but instead of brooding endlessly over the woman he's lost, Jack does something to help her. That's why it's so exciting to see the directions Clowes heads in Patience, his story of true love and time travel.

But he has, nonetheless, been around an awfully long while. This man - Wilson in 2010's Wilson, Marshall in 2011's Mister Wonderful, nameless in many other guises - is a heartbreaking figure, and Clowes' controlled style makes it sublimely painful to watch the character live his pathetic life. His recent books have focused, laserlike, on a human type that's shown up repeatedly in his comics over the last 20 years: a lonely, self-hating man living in his own head, desperate for connection, yet sabotaging it when the chance comes. How?ĭaniel Clowes may be one of the most notable comic artists of our era, a pillar of the '80s-'90s scene who's continued to do great work up to the present day, but he does tend to fixate. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Patience Author Daniel Clowes

Daniel clowes like a velvet glove