"Art School Confidential" is a four-page

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicat ...

Daniel Clowes Daniel Gillespie Clowes (; born April 14, 1961) is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter. Most of Clowes's work first appeared in ''Eightball (comic book), Eightball'', a solo anthology comic book series. An ''E ...

. It originally appeared in issue #7 (November 1991) of Clowes'

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

'' Eightball'' and was later reprinted in the book collections ''Orgy Bound'' and '' Twentieth Century Eightball''. It inspired the 2006 film of the same name. A color version of the comic was included in the published version of Clowes' original

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

for the film. The comic is a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

of American

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on practice and related theory in the visual arts and design. This includes fine art – especially illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. T ...

s, presented in the manner of a sensationalistic exposé and ostensibly based on Clowes' own experiences at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

. (The story is signed "By D. Clowes, B.F.A." and a Pratt Institute

diploma A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offi ...

appears on a wall in one panel.) According to Clowes in a 2006 interview, "Art School Confidential" was

literally something where I had four pages left (in ''Eightball'' 7) and I had to turn the issue in. I said, "Well, I'll do something about art school that will amuse my 10 friends who went." I really thought nobody else would comment on it or even notice. As it turned out, every single one of my readers was either in art school or had some affiliation with it. They all responded overwhelmingly (and) were all certain I had gone to the same art school they had. The story took on a life of its own for a while.… People would Xerox it and put it up on the bulletin board at school. Somebody else would take it from there and Xerox it again. There were rumors that it had been Xeroxed so many times that nobody could discern the art style anymore. It became a kind of folk art.

The "tampon-in-a-teacup trick" referred to in "Art School Confidential" appeared in the 2001 film version of Clowes's

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

'' Ghost World''.

Quotes

* "If you must go to art school ''for God's sake'' make the most of it ... Seldom if ever again in life will you be afforded the chance to scrutinize such an array of losers in an environment that actually encourages their most pretentious inclinations!" * "Remember, the only piece of paper less valuable than one of your paintings is a B.F.A. degree."

References

Comics by Daniel Clowes Short comics Satirical comics Comics set in schools 1991 comics debuts 1991 comics endings American comics adapted into films Works about the visual arts {{comics-stub