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Daniel Clowes Goes Back to 'Art School'

Daniel Clowes, right, with director Terry Zigoff at a premiere of their film collaboration.
Daniel Clowes, right, with director Terry Zigoff at a premiere of their film collaboration.

Jerome Platz wants merely to be the greatest artist of the 21st century. But the film Art School Confidential paints quite a different picture for those who, like Platz and his fictitious fellow freshmen at Strathmore Art Academy, remain full of hope.

"Only one student out of a hundred will find work in his chosen field," intones a teacher played by John Malkovich. "The rest of you are essentially wasting your time learning a useless 'hobby.'"

The man behind that deflating -- if accurate -- sentiment is Daniel Clowes, the comic artist and screenwriter. He tells Liane Hansen how he came to lampoon the art-school scene.

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