Patience by Daniel Clowes


Patience
Title : Patience
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1606999052
ISBN-10 : 9781606999059
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 180
Publication : First published March 2, 2016
Awards : Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Best Graphic Album—New and Best Lettering (for Daniel Clowes) (2017), Goodreads Choice Award Graphic Novels & Comics (2016)

Patience is a psychedelic science-fiction love story, veering with uncanny precision from violent destruction to deeply personal tenderness in a way that is both quintessentially "Clowesian"and utterly unique in the author's body of work. This 180-page, full-color original graphic novel affords Clowes the opportunity to draw some of the most exuberant and breathtaking pages of his life, and to tell his most suspenseful, surprising and affecting story yet.


Patience Reviews


  • karen

    congratulations! semifinalist in goodreads' best graphic novels & comics category 2016!


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    i may have done myself a disservice by reading
    Dark Matter immediately before reading this book.

    both are stories in which a man who loses a beloved woman tries to get her back through science fiction-y means and whose mistakes along the way have horrifying personal consequences i only partially understand. this one is easier on my brain because it doesn't actually try to explain the science and also there are pictures for me to look at...


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    the two books use different SF concepts to tell their stories, but they're similar enough that i was all, "didn't i just...?" once this one started trotting off into that direction.

    i will say it's pleasantly unpredictable. i had no intention of reading this - i'm not a fan of clowes' drawing style, and i've only ever read
    Ghost World, to which my reaction was 'meh.'

    but i had picked this up for connor and he soon pushed it right back at me, declaring that he had 'accidentally' read it; he had meant to just check out the first couple of pages and before he knew it, he'd finished the whole thing and he thought i should read it, too. that kind of enthusiastic response from someone who doesn't read a ton was enough to make me willing to give clowes another shot since if the story is strong, i don't need to be into the art.

    and even though i'm still medium on the book, i really do enjoy being surprised, and i did not anticipate that a book with this starting point


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    would go where it did.

    and i didn't hate the art - some of it hit my smalltown sad people buttons


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    it just wasn't the book to change my mind about whether dan clowes is the graphic novelist for me. he is not. but much respect.


    come to my blog!

  • F

    Was alright. Her haircut annoyed me. Not the biggest fan of this one.

  • Sam Quixote

    In 2012, Jack and Patience are poor but in love and about to have a baby. But Patience’s past of sketchy ex-boyfriends catches up with her and, returning home from work one day, Jack discovers her strangled corpse. The killer is never found and Jack never gets over it. It’s now 2029 and time-travel has been invented, conveniently by someone Jack knows, and he decides to journey back to 2012, stop the murderer and save Patience and their unborn child. Sounds simple – I mean, it’s time-travel, what could go wrong…?

    Dan Clowes’ books are very hit-or-miss and, disappointingly, Patience is one of his crappier efforts. The story has a meandering, dreary, overlong plot that drags on without much happening – it’s mostly Jack stalking past-Patience in the background. We see Patience’s crappy young adulthood and the string of bad experiences that leads her to Jack but it’s a very ordinary tale. You’re gonna need patience to make it through this long-winded tripe - ZING, you’ve just been Quixote’d! Hmm, don’t think that’ll catch on…

    Jack’s a fuckup from page one and consistently proves it by first going too far back to 2006, then accidentally jumping to 1985 before bungling his way to the right time. I guess it’s mildly amusing to have an incompetent protagonist - if only Jack were even remotely likeable!

    The premise is frustratingly nebulous – Jack doesn’t know who the killer is but he vaguely thinks it’s one of Patience’s ex-boyfriends so he decides to target the nastiest one. No planning, no competence in getting to the right time just fuzzy thinking all the way through. What an idiot! The time-travel itself is also vague – something about a weird gun and an injectable liquid?!

    Some of the key sequences aren’t even well told by Clowes which is surprising given his decades of cartooning experience. For example one minute Jack is being handcuffed by police, then somehow he manages to inject himself in the neck with the time-travel serum, then he’s gone… what? Because it would only complicate an already bad story, none of Jack’s dumb actions in the past affects the future and the book has an unsatisfying resolution.

    The colours are quite vibrant and some of the splash pages have a psychedelic look to them but Patience is drawn in the usual Clowes style that’s not going to wow anyone familiar with his work. The space future he draws is super-corny too with ‘60s Star Trek aliens (humans with blue skin) and Jetsons-type furniture everywhere. Very unimaginative and derivative – why not throw in hover cars, Rosie the Robot and jet packs?

    Patience is a boring, slow and tedious sci-fi romance whose weak story could’ve been told in less than half the pages if Clowes weren’t being overindulgent. Clowes has done sci-fi kitsch so much better in The Death Ray – I’d recommend checking that one out over Patience.

  • Sonja P.

    I am super super over women being used to further men's emotional stories, especially when that journey in whatever form it takes is instigated by trauma to a woman viewed through a dude's eyes. I just don't really care anymore to be honest

  • Donovan




    Nice to meet you, Daniel Clowes. Thanks for blowing my mind. Your artwork is staggeringly impressive.

    Naturally I've arrived late to the party. This is my first Daniel Clowes read. I know, I know. Why do I do this to myself? Start at the end of someone's career. I've got no context. I'm not even sure why I wanted to read this but I'm very glad I did.

    I don't read artistic graphic novels like this. It's not that I don't like them, but I'm generally a depressive person and try to actively avoid books that will depress me. And artistic books generally are depressing. I know, I know, I'm limiting myself, there are lots of great and moving if depressing books and it's completely my choice to not read them. Because life is too short to read what you don't want to read. But I digress. This books makes me thoughtful.

    This wasn't depressing, surprisingly. It was brilliant, clever, funny funny and weird funny, downright strange, fun, creepy, sometimes horrific, mindfuck psychedelic, and all the while instilled empathy in me the reader for poor Jack, whose seemingly blank life turns out to be very exciting after all. I want to tell you so badly why it was brilliant and clever but I can't, it will ruin everything. Let's just say that things are not what they seem, and if we've learned anything from Back to the Future, shit gets fucked when you time travel.

  • Ma'Belle

    I felt like I needed a shower after reading this. Instead, I noted to myself my main impressions from it from start to finish, and then slept nearly 14 hours.

    I'm not going to read all the hype and positive reviews for this book, because I don't want to be socially swayed into giving it more credit than it deserves. All I knew was that it was Daniel Clowes's new book and reportedly another whiny dude story that Fantagraphics had prioritized in their marketing this year above all sorts of great projects by lesser-known creators.

    Here are the reasons I'm not even giving this 2 stars:
    1. The protagonist is a despicable, pathetic man with no redeeming qualities. Not even some hardass jerk antihero like John Constantine or Punisher or something. He's just horrible from beginning to end, and there's no one else to really root for as his opposition!

    2. Yes, it's essentially another whiny dude story. I realized a few pages in it was that, but THEN it also became a story of a pregnant young wife who gets *fridged* in order to set her husband on a selfish quest of vengeance. Those are NOT among my favourite stories, for so many good reasons. And THEN it becomes a *time travel* story, which gives Clowes chances to play with sci-fi, surrealist art, and a less straight-forward-than-linear narrative sequence. All of which he wastes.

    3. The art is really nothing special or great. It's like a Silver Age cartoonist was able to briefly look INTO THE FUTURE and see glimpses of Charles Burns's and Los Bros Hernandez's great, weird tales in mundane settings, and decided to paste some of those styles on top of his own. But then the book wasn't published until well after those other greats had already done their things much better, so it glides purely on the power of coming from The Cartoonist Who Saw The Future!

    There are a couple of interesting ideas and well-laid panels in Patience, but they're muddied by the whole rest of the book's story and character arc.

  • Dave Schaafsma

    Review to follow, but I loved it. Sci fi psychedelia, in a comics crime novel setting. The surface is quite conventional at first, almost startlingly so, a young couple having a baby. Don't worry, though, it gets weird. A great yarn, which I hesitate to tell you too much about. But I will say more. In my opinion, a big comics event of the year! As with Charles Burns' Sugar Skull trilogy, there's a humane streak running through it, regret and melancholy and guilt for a man about a woman and a baby. Haunted by it. This connection is worth exploring, as I think Clowes is in conversation with Burns on this and other themes in this book. Highly recommended!

  • Kevin

    Clowes unleashes a time travel love story on his unsuspecting fans. It's funny how even when Clowes gets a little too goofy on the science side or syrupy on the romance, his artwork and style propels you forward like you're gorging on candy. Patience is a lot of fun and a bold step in Clowes's brilliant oeuvre.

  • Ill D

    I'm a huge fan of the Daniel Clowes canon and his latest offering Patience, does not disappoint. Instead its as much a delight for eyes as for your fingers as well. Massive panels grace an equally vast book with a simple yet strong palette of rich colors fleshing out each panel. The typical Daniel Clowes style is there as well, hearkening back to a older era yet still keeping it relevant for modern audiences.

    There's alot of things great about this book so it's a little difficult to decide where to start.

    First of all, unlike almost all of my comic (book) reading experiences in recent memory, I actually procured the physical copy from my local library. Not only was I floored by the sheer size of the book but thoroughly enjoyed the vast panels that fit the dimensions perfectly. Although I'm a total convertee to the digital format (After being a bitter hipster, counter-revolutionary, Luddite for years) I don't feel that the electronic format could do this justice. No matter the screen resolution otherwise, Patience is meant to be read in the original hardback. Your eyes will thank me.

    Second, I really enjoyed the story and the peoples that populated it. Unlike some of Clowes works that veer toward the zany, Patience is quite coherent and is pushed forward by characters that are as believable as they are lovable. The titular Patience, for example, has a great back-story that engages us emotionally and visually. Patience is great, the protagonist is great, and all the secondary/tertiary characters are illustrated with great realistic effect.

    Thirdly, I love Daniel Clowes' art style. Its highly idiosyncratic yet draws strongly on the past. Its unique yet clearly stands on the shoulders of giants. Patience employs a relatively simple band of colors yet speaks strongly with each. Characters are generally drawn simply sans adornments. Yet its this simplicity that allows the characters and their personalities/motivations to really stand out and speak for themselves.

    Fourthly, on a personal level this has been a real pleasant change of pace. As fun as comics can be, Patience has been a fun little distraction from the blood spattered pages of recent memory, ranging

    from the admittedly artistic to the
    to the downright silly. Comics can be fun and heartfelt and Patience is evidence as that.

    So despite all the less than pleasant reviews, which really surprised me(!), Patience is a great read. The characters are great. And the art is great two.

    Two well deserved thumbs up


  • Matt Quann

    Patience, Daniel Clowes five-years in the making graphic novel, is a fairly standard time travel romance story with enough snappy dialogue and wacky art to warrant the price of admission.

    The first thing that struck me when I took Patience out of the box is its striking hardcover design. The front is a bust of the eponymous character at the centre of a wheel from which psychedelic spokes shoot out. The silver reflective title demands the reader's (or casual shopper's) attention while Patience herself looks directly at her audience. On the verso: our hero, Jack Barlow surrounded by pie-slices of his adventure through time. Book binding may also seem a nitpick-y thing to bring up, but so many comics these days lose a lot of their content in the gutters. Not so with Patience, which is perfectly suited to its large splash pages, or the multitude of "talking head" panels.

    Clowes' artwork speaks to a master in his prime deciding to flex some different muscles. While Clowes' character work has always been good, I was happy to see that he dove in to some truly trippy page layouts and scenes. The Death-Ray, Clowes' previous effort, was a good test run of his particular brand of science-fiction hipster storytelling, but he just goes absolutely mad in Patience. While there's nothing particularly special about the time travel plot line, the depiction of time travel and its physical/psychological side effects are dizzying in their adoption of 80's sci-fi kitsch.

    I've read and heard criticism of Clowes' facial depiction, but I find it to be one of the most appealing aspects of his work. What worked for me in this graphic novel was the relationship between Patience and Jack which is only complimented by Clowes' ability to nail the depiction of emotion. While I thought that a lot of the dialogue, narration, and scenes were genuinely funny, there's not a whole lot to dig into from the time travel narrative perspective. The story isn't groundbreaking, and isn't all that concerned with the theoretical underpinnings of time travel. What Clowes wants the audience to know is that Jack has the opportunity to prevent Patience's death, the rest is just semantics as far as Patience is concerned.

    So, there's nothing really wrong with this graphic novel and it would make a fine addition to anyone's shelf, especially for fans of Clowes. The weaknesses are minor, and Clowes more than makes up for them by putting his own particular spin on a story that you've read before. While the concept was intriguing, it was the art and character work that really sold me on this project. If you're a bit worn out on the time travel/romance genre (if it isn't a section at your bookstore, find a new one), then maybe leave this for another time. Overall, Patience is an undeniably pretty graphic novel, but is wanting in the plot department.

  • Tatiana

    I liked it, but I feel that all time-travel stories end kind of the same way?

  • Jason Pettus

    (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

    Oh, what a letdown it's been as a member of Generation X, to watch all the daring young bucks against the Establishment in my twenties become the exact next generation of the Establishment itself now that we're creeping into our fifties; and nowhere is this generational shift more noticeable than in the world of "alternative" comics, a movement that started with grungy self-published titles traded through the back pages of obscure magazines like Factsheet 5, but with those same creators now bringing the kind of white-male academic reverence, New Yorker cover assignments, and subsequent mainstream embrace that also ruined jazz, whiskey and baseball. (Hint: If Ken Burns has done a documentary on it, it's a subject well on its way to being ruined by white-male academic reverence. Coming to PBS in 2017 -- Zines: A Film by Ken Burns.) All of this was in the front of my mind recently while reading through Dan "Eightball" Clowes' latest book, and the largest single story so far of his career, the 180-page sci-fi tale Patience; for to be clear, this is Clowes being as Clowesian as Clowesian literature even gets, and while as a long-time fan I was perfectly fine with this decades-long consistency of his, it made me wonder if his shtick has by now worn thin among the current generation of young people making and enjoying comics, especially now that the tide has come full circle and young creatives seem to be really embracing traditional superhero comics again.

    Both the storytelling and the artwork is almost exactly what you would expect from Clowes by this point; lots of hipsters staring blankly directly full-on at the reader, a kind of cartoonish lumpiness to the characters, 60-year-old men who still talk exactly like bratty teenagers (can't wait for Ghost World Assisted Living Facility), and like nearly all full-length comic books, a plotline that's serviceable but that would barely fill a ten-page story if just words alone, a story that many would find uninspiring and predictable if not for all the pretty pictures and the usual fetishistically precise binding by the now revered Fantagraphics. And like I said, as a 47-year-old who's been reading Clowes' work in real time all the way back since Eightball #4, this is exactly what I expected from Patience, and the three weeks I spent reading it two or four pages at a time during every bathroom visit was a series of five-minute experiences I have no particular complaints about. But I'm starting to question more and more whether anyone 30 or younger is even capable of seeing Clowes' work this way anymore, or if they greet new titles like these with an angry sigh and a, "Oh, great, more early-'90s crap that took up a slot in Fantagraphics' publishing schedule that deserved to go to a younger and more exciting artist."

    I don't know the answers to these questions, and admittedly it's perhaps unfair to disparage a book merely on the theoretical idea that there are a bunch of young people rolling their eyes at it as we speak. But certainly there's something to be legitimately pointed out in public when, after a youth when I was always so excited by a new Clowes book, now I seem to greet each new one with, "Yep, that sure was another book by the middle-aged comics creator Daniel Clowes, all right." Although not actively bad, Patience is a prime example of an artist resting on his laurels; and as a critic I'm never exactly thrilled to come across an artist resting on their laurels, and I find it hard to react to these kinds of books with anything other than the same apathetic shrug all the indie twentysomethings also give it.

    Out of 10: 7.8

  • Michael

    Was wäre, wenn man in der Zeit reisen und den Tod des geliebten Menschen möglicherweise verhindern könnte?
    Eines Tages kommt Jack nach Hause und findet seine schwangere Frau Patience erschlagen auf. Dieses Verbrechen zerstört sein Leben, und die nächsten Monate verbringt er als Hauptverdächtiger im Gefängnis. Nach seiner Entlassung hat Jack nur noch ein Ziel: Den Täter, den die Polizei nicht ermittelt hat, dingfest zu machen.
    Als sich ihm die Möglichkeit eröffnet, in der Zeit zu reisen, taucht eine neue Option auf: Den Mord an Patience zu verhindern.
    Die Geschichte nimmt zunächst recht langsam Fahrt auf, doch dann konnte ich das Buch nicht mehr aus der Hand legen.
    Patience kommt aus sehr einfachen Verhältnissen (selbst nennt sie es "white trash", eine Bezeichnung, die ich sehr abstoßend finde), hat aber die Hoffnung auf sozialen Aufstieg nicht aufgegeben. Ihre Geschichte berührt mich, ebenso ihre Beziehung zu Jack, der sie sehr liebt, sich aber nicht traut, in allen Belangen ehrlich zu ihr zu sein.
    Jack setzt nach dem Mord sein Leben daran, diesen ungeschehen zu machen, und der Preis ist hoch. Um nicht zu spoilern, verzichte ich auf Details, aber es entwickelt sich eine SF-Story mit klassischen Zeitreiseparadoxa und Nebenwirkungenn (12 MONKEYS läßt grüßen).
    Packende Handlung, eine berührende Story sowie sympathische Hauptpersonen, dazu die Artwork von Clowes, die ich sehr liebe:
    eine absolute Leseempfehlung für Freunde von Independent- und SF-Stories!

  • Nasia

    Ένα αρκετά ψυχεδελικό graphic novel για μια αγάπη που δεν έχει διάσταση, ή μήπως για μια εμμονή ; Σε πολλά σημεία που δόθηκε η εντύπωση ότι ο πρωταγωνιστής δεν ήθελε να αντιστρέψει τα γεγονότα, ώστε να έχει ξανά στα χέρια του την αγάπη του, αλλά το προσπαθούσε μόνο και μόνο επειδή του είχε γίνει έμμονη ιδέα πως έπρεπε να τα καταφέρει. Έντονα χρώματα, πολλά ταξίδια στον χωροχρόνο και τελικά, δεν ξέρω, λίγη ουσία. Ένοιωσα πως θα μπορούσε να είναι ένα σαφώς μικρότερο βιβλίο με μεγαλύτερη ουσία.

    Υπομονή κάνουμε όλοι, το θέμα είναι να μην εξαντληθεί, γιατί μετά τι;

  • Derek Royal

    My experiences and reactions reading this book are twofold: reading it with the publicity hype in mind and reading it outside of that paratext. Fantagraphics really played up the fact that this was a much-awaited book, perhaps the most anticipated of the year. Perhaps that is correct, but whenever I see hype of this sort, it's as if the book has to prove something to me that it wouldn't have to otherwise. And I know that the creator/creation is separate from the brouhaha surrounding the publication, but still, at times it's difficult to experience a narrative outside of its marketing. So when I read Patience with the hype in mind, I was mildly disappointed. Perhaps "disappointed" isn't the correct word. Let's just say I thought the book was okay, and a good story, generally speaking. In other words, I liked it well enough, but I wasn't overly impressed. But then I went through to read it a second time, and on this occasion I tried to take in the story on its own merits and outside of any of the publicity -- Fantagraphics-generated and otherwise -- surrounding the text. And this time, I appreciated Patience much more. While I don't feel that it's the strongest narrative Clowes has created, it's a solid one. It's definitely the longest book he's written so far...and completely outside of the context of Eightball.

    We reviewed this book on The Comics Alternative:
    http://comicsalternative.com/episode-...

  • Stewart Tame

    Jack's problem is that he has no Patience.

    I suppose Dan Clowes is probably sick of hearing that joke. "Jesus! Another overgrown fanboy who can't keep his big mouth shut. It's subtext! You don't say it out loud, schmuck!" No, I have no idea why Dan Clowes sounds like Gilbert Gottfried either ...

    I thought I knew how this was going to end, and was pleased to find I was wrong. Jack and Patience are in love, and expecting a baby. He returns to their apartment one day to find her dead, and sinks into despondency. He vows to find the killer, but turns up one dead end after another. Until he realizes time travel is a possibility ...

    For someone not exactly known for genre stories, Clowes handles time travel very well. He doesn't make any of the usual mistakes that writers inexperienced with SF make on their first foray into the genre. The story is well-plotted and gripping. As always, his characters feel emotionally real. They are flawed human beings doing their best to try to rise above their circumstances.

    Art and story are phenomenal. This is some of the best work Clowes has done in years. Highly recommended!

  • Artemy

    A pretty cool psychedelic sci-fi time-travel thingie. I never read anything by Clowes before, despite having his Ghost World on my shelf for ages, but Patience was an enjoyable enough read and a good introduction to the author's style. And of course, some very beautiful art and design here, this book is gorgeous.

  • Jon Nakapalau

    Time travel stories are so hard to do because there are several stories that have set high standards (A Sound of Thunder, Behold the Man, The Time Machine). Daniel Clowes does a great job of putting us in a situation that we can all relate to (traveling back in time to save someone we love) but then he pulls the carpet from under us - and we land on a hard floor looking up at the ceiling. One of the best GN I have read this year.

  • Emre Yavuz

    Good old Daniel Clowes. I really liked this one. It's like Ghost World meets Terminator :)

  • S̶e̶a̶n̶

    Sloppy narrative techniques, bland and/or stock characters, and disempowering portrayals of women, with some occasionally cool artwork. This was by far the least appealing of Clowes's books that I've read. He should stay away from science fiction, as it's not a good vehicle for his brand of storytelling.

  • Paz R.M.

    2 Stars.
    I blame my ''comic book reading slump'' on this one (and The Beauty)
    See, first time I heard of Patience was in March of last year, shout-out to Collider's Heroes, and damn they sold it too much. It was described as one of the best time-travel stories they have ever read, with surreal graphics and an emotional core with big surprises.
    Man, this... was and wasn't that.
    There's a very human element in this psychedelic sci-fi story, but it was not my cup of tea. I just didn't like it, at all.

    Should I describe this book? Because I feel like the best thing of this story is what happens a few pages after you start, which is, coincidentally, the simplest way to summarize the plot.

    So I'll just describe this graphic novel like this: Melancholy, regrets, a depressing past and time travel in a neo-noir love story.
    That's it. It's a fucking great pitch that, to me, didn't live up to expectations.

    The graphics were all over the place and the artwork style didn't make me any favors in liking or understanding parts of the story. Maybe that's on me, silly me, picking up this as my first Daniel Clowes graphic novel.

    I didn't only struggle with the artwork though, the characters, why couldn't be at least ONE likable character? I get it. Jack has become a bitter, angry, hopeless version of himself and Patience's life is full of tragedies. Why couldn't at least feel for this couple? I think I know why: They were boring, unappealing and depressing.

    With that said, of course the mystery was uninteresting to me. I just didn't care. Add to that the awful visuals, the splash of colors and graphics that didn't make any sense to me, yeah it wasn't a great reading experience.

    It was underwhelming, I found it choppy, unclear and too long for what the story was trying to accomplish. The thriller aspect that some people have rave about? Fuck that, it was tedious to read. The love story? If I don't give a fuck about the characters why should I care about their relationship, which also, wasn't a great one to begin with? The sci-fi aspect? Well, let's just say that it's a very basic formula. The psychedelic, surreal artwork? A miss for me, confusing and I'll just say it, I find Daniel's artwork ugly.

    I am in no hurry to pick up any of Daniel Clowes other works aaaand I don't know man, I can't recommend this, but hey look at the ratings, smarter people than I have enjoyed this work and like I said, it is a hell of a pitch, but if I were you, I'd wait for the movie that's already being developed.(I know, I know, what an awful thing to say to a reader... wait for the movie)

  • Michael

    Read this in one sitting. A really great piece of graphic fiction. At first I thought the story was steering towards a Back To The Future scenario. Then it changed into what I thought was going to be similar to a
    Robert A. Heinlein scenario. Both done with great panache. But the story took a turn into territory that I'm not aware of being explored before.

    I have enjoyed reading
    Daniel Clowes recently starting with
    The Complete Eightball 1-18 and my favorite work so far has been
    Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron for it's surreal narrative interwoven with a realistic setting. And of course
    Ghost World. This one is also very well done and definitely recommended.

  • Erin the Avid Reader ⚜BFF's with the Cheshire Cat⚜

    I got this book without knowing what in the world was going to happen. I got it at Powell's bookstore for $30.00 and was autographed by the author himself. I got it because I love Daniel Clowes and his art style may be some of the best in comic history.

    Oh boy was I not disappointed with this one! The settings and moods Clowes is able to create is simply astounding. If this man dies on us soon, I will weep rivers! This is a very, very good and very bizarre graphic novel. It reminded me a little of his graphic novel "Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron", except I like this one a bit better, do it it being explained better and not just a bunch of strange pictures being thrown around occasionally.

    This is probably one of his longer works. I think fans of him are going to love this. Wonderful colors and settings, great humor and also tug-on-your-heartstings/tear-jerker moments, and a very bizarre ending with a twist. I loved this graphic novel! I'm glad I bought it.

  • Michael

    This book floored me. It is like La Jatee (12 Monkeys) meets Velvet Glove Cast in Iron. While it is not as bizarro as the latter, there are moments when you are paging through a very touching SF love story and then turn a page only to have Clowes spring his quirky surrealism on you in a giant, colorful full-page splash that will leave your jaw on the floor. The book truly lives up to its subtitle listed on the back cover (which, to be frank, should have been the FRONT cover, in my opinon): "a cosmic timewarp deathtrip to the primordial infinite of everlasting love." The book really delves into the longing beneath love, the weirdness of phenomenological memory, and the way our bonds really are with more than just each other in this crazy thing called life. A great story, made masterwork by the artwork by this creator of Ghost World. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE YELLOW. And read it!

  • Danger

    Part detective noir/part time-travel scifi brainbender - a man seeks to save his murdered wife by hopping back in time to find her killer before he gets to her. As you could imagine, things don’t go as planned. The art was colorful, and the story moved very quickly (almost too quick) but because of those things this book was relentlessly engaging, and once I started reading it, I don’t think I stopped until the end. Well, maybe I stopped once to go pee, but gimme a break I’m only human.

  • Sofia

    Είναι Κυριακή απόγευμα; Νιώθεις την ματαιότητα να σε τυλιγεί; Κάνε έναν καφέ, πάρε την Υπομονή και θα περάσεις χάρμα! Πέρα από την πλάκα, αν και η εμπειρία μου στο συγκεκριμένο είδος είναι σχεδόν μηδενική, η Υπομονή μου άρεσε πολύ! Όμορφη εικονογράφιση, γρήγορη πλοκή και μια αρκετά ενδιαφέρουσα υπόθεση που με κάνουν να σκέφτομαι μήπως ψάξω και τα υπόλοιπα του Clowes. Βιβλίο που διαβάζεται σε ένα απόγευμα αβάδιστα και αβασάνιστα ;)

  • Emma

    2.5/5 Stars

    I wasn't the biggest fan of this graphic novel. I definitely enjoyed Patience and Jack's relationship, especially at the beginning of the book and I liked how he did everything out of his love for her. The problem is that he was blinded by this love and that he was ready to kill in order to have her back and the possibility of a life that was taken from him. Also, the drawing style wasn't for me.

  • Koen Claeys

    Bizarre, intriguing, beautiful, compelling, thought provoking,.... typically Clowes.

  • Baby Monster #563

    This is a beautiful book & story. Perfect balance of love and sci-fi by Mr Clowes. The art really is great too. I especially recommended to anyone in love. And anyone with kids or about to have a kid.

  • BunnySuicides

    Και καθόλου να μη μου άρεσε, θα το χρησιμοποιούσα για διακοσμητικό