Terry Zwigoff and Dan Clowes' Art School Confidential, which opened well in extremely limited release last week (just 12 theaters in LA and NYC), expands to 130 screens this weekend. Art School Confidential, which is loosely based on a short story from Clowes' Eightball, actually owes as much to the classic 1950s exploitation film High School Confidential as it does to Clowes' original story. While Art School Confidential is definitely not likely to become a 'hit' film by
Art School Confidential is likely to do as well as Clowes and Zwigoff's Ghost World, which earned $6.2 million in 2001, and which contributed mightily to sales of over 100,000 copies of Clowes' Ghost World graphic novel. Unfortunately because it is based on a comic short story, Art School Confidential lacks a direct graphic novel tie-in. Fantagraphics' Art School Confidential ($14.95) does contain the original Eightball story (in color for the first time), but it is basically a screenplay (illustrated with behind-the-scenes photos) and retailers will remember from 2001 that the Ghost World Screenplay did not sell nearly as well as the graphic novel. However Art School Confidential presents retailers with an opportunity to use the film, which has received some excellent reviews (Ebert & Roper both recommended it), to push the entire Clowes' backlist including titles such as Twentieth Century Eightball, Ice Haven, Ghost World, Pussey! and Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron.
