There have been plenty of opportunities for Daniel Clowes to get reflective in recent years. 2015 saw the release of The Complete Eightball, a massive two-volume hardcover set that collected the full eight year, 18 issue run of his iconic underground series. Next month sees the release of Original Art, a deluxe single volume book that examines his raw pencil and ink work, from Eightball to 2016’s Patience. It’s a loving examination of one of the medium’s most beloved artists. A lesser artist might balk at the mere suggestion, but decades later, Clowes’s work loses none of his punch under such a microscope, even as he restlessly adopts new narrative and artistic styles. Clowes, too, is able to examine his own work at a comfortable distance all of these years later. And as with the pages of Original Art, the cartoonist never shies away from a warts and all examination of the work and the processes that got him there.