This is a small addendum to the last post. Jason Overby & J.T. Dockery (via comments) reminded me of another later interview where Dan Clowes recanted his Gary Panter comments. I dug around in my Comics Journals and found the relevant quote:
One guy whose work I once said flippant, dismissive things about in an interview which I absolutely deeply regret, is Gary Panter. I think he’s the greatest artist in the world. At the time I had only read a few things of his and really sort of lumped him in with other lesser artists of the style. – The Comics Journal, issue 233, May 2001
I hope that the article doesn’t read in any way as disrespectful to Clowes. I just wanted to point out the attitudes that existed at the time (late 80’s & early 90’s – though they persist until today) and that even the best of us held some of these views. I’m certainly not immune. In the past I’ve practiced all kinds of wrong-headed anti-art stances.
Also, it should be mentioned that both of the interviews the Blab! #4 interview I mentioned and MUCH more are is collected in a new volume edited by Kent Worcester Ken Parille and Isaac Cates: Daniel Clowes: Conversations.
Tom, my co-editor is Ken Parille, not Kent Worcester.
…And we weren’t able to include that interview from TCJ # 233, unfortunately. Fantagraphics does seem to have plans to bring it back into print themselves, though.
Total brain fart! Sorry! I was thinking of Kent cause I quoted him recently and it just overshadowed Ken Parille in my mind. Sorry! Already corrected!
I appreciate the official follow-up (and refreshing my memory on what the actual quote was). That said, I certainly didn’t take the previous post as anti-Clowes. If I did, that would mean I’m kind of dumb. Haw.