Early issues of "Eightball" feature a mixture of very short, often crudely humorous comics ("Zubrick and Pogeybait", "The Sensual Santa"), topical rants and satires ("Art School Confidential", "On Sports"), longer, more reflective self-contained stories ("Caricature", "Immortal Invisible"), and serialized works. The first extended story serialized in "Eightball" was "Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron", which ran in issues #1–10. "Glove" was followed by "Ghost World" (issues #11–18). Beginning with #19 each issue of "Eightball" has been devoted to a single storyline, as opposed to the more eclectic format of the earlier issues. Issues #19–21 serialized the graphic novel "David Boring", while issues #22 and 23 each consisted of a collection of short, fragmentary stories in diverse styles and formats that meshed into a unified narrative ("Ice Haven" and "The Death Ray"). The issues of "Eightball" beginning with #19 have been published in full color in a larger magazine-sized format. "Eightball" #18 included a bound-in copy of Clowes's pamphlet "Modern Cartoonist".