Daniel Clowes.
(First in a series of however many I come up with.)
I got hooked on "Ghost World" in "Eightball" way before it ever became a movie. Somehow, Clowes' strangely eerie warped kinda 1950's art style sucked me in, but his storytelling that depicted personal isolation, depression and a strange detachment of the characters to the in which they lived was compelling.
"Ghost World," and "David Boring" were the most perfect examples of stories that were, on the surface, strange sort of stream-of-consciousness tales about people moving through a world over which they seemed to have to no control and living with a fair amount of frustration.
Below the surface, however, they were even more dreamlike and mysterious, with characters whose names spelled strange anagrams.
Harlan Ellison often quotes a saying which goes something like, "Establish enigmas, not answers." I think this is the strength of Clowes' work, for me anyway.
I read these things thinking, what are these people doing and why are they doing it? In some of his best works, I never really figure it out.
At any rate, since about the time "Ghost World" was made into a movie, it seems like Clowes has moved away from comics. He did, however, recently draw a cover for the "New Yorker" magazine, which fit in well with his usual themes.
The front page is above, and the second page shows the man having tea with the robot he has just built.
If I were to interpret the cover, from my lens of Clowes is all about detachment from people and real world around you, I'd say the idea is the man has no one to spend time with so he has to build a robot just to be able to enjoy his tea. He can only take solace in the companionship of a being created from his imagination that isn't even human.
Anyway, two pages in a national magazine is nice, but I'd sure love to see a 24th issue of "Eightball."
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