With the year gradually drawing to a close, 2012 is proving to a career benchmark for comics creator Daniel Clowes.

The Chicago-born cartoonist’s first museum retrospective The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist opened to popular and critical acclaim at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) and the exhibition features original artworks from his early creative efforts in the pages of Eightball to his recent graphic novel Wilson. The exhibition is slated to travel to various other arts institutions around the country.

In tandem with OMCA’s small yet wonderfully engaging show curated by Rene DeGuzman and Susan Miller, Clowes’ innovative alternative comics are also the subject of Alvin Buenaventura’s comprehensive monograph Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes, which was published this spring.

Here’s De Guzman’s interview with Clowes prior to the opening of his traveling exhibition:

http://vimeo.com/39446320

In the near future, Clowes’ screenplay based on his 2010 graphic novel Wilson will roll into production with Oscar-winning writer-director Alexander Payne of Sideways fame at the helm. Needless to say, Clowes is on a creative roll across multiple platforms in terms of presenting his comics to new and old fans alike.

Clowes’ profile has skyrocketed with a number of high-profile features in numerous publications including a cover story in the Arts section of The New York Times earlier this summer:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/arts/design/daniel-clowess-retrospective-at-the-oakland-museum.html?pagewanted=all

You can also find a short and insightful video piece on Clowes that was produced to accompany The New York Times‘ article:

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/03/30/arts/design/100000001461574/the-cartoonists-goal.html

Recently, Clowes was interviewed by Goeff Boucher on an episode of Hero Complex. Here’s a link to the piece recorded at Los Angeles-based Meltdown Comics:

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/07/19/daniel-clowes-the-hero-complex-interview/ 

You can keep up on Clowes’ various projects by checking out the blog dedicated to the artist’s work:

http://danielclowes.blogspot.com/

Clowes is among the select comics creators and comic-book inspired artists prominently featured in the documentary-in-progress, Comics Are Everywhere.

Be sure to check back here for more installments of my blog on Comics Are Everywhere, focused on comics art and the creative process and updates on my documentary exploring comics from the insides out and artists working at the crossroads where alternative comics, animation and the Art World collide.

- Neil Kendricks