Like a velvet glove cast in iron

Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Daniel Clowes. The book follows a rather fantastic and paranoid plot, very different from the stark realism of Clowes' later more widely known Ghost World. It contains nightmarish imagery, including dismemberment, deformed people and animals, and sexual fetishism. Clowes has talked about how the story was inspired by his dreams, as well as a recurring dream of his ex-wife's:

A lot of it is just daydreams, where ... I can just have these thoughts that are uncontrolled by common logic, and then I start to see things in a different way. It's sort of the same thing as when you wake up from a long dream and you, for one minute, see the absurdity of the world. The book's title is a quote from the Russ Meyer film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (The full line, as delivered by Lori Williams, is "You're cute, like a velvet glove cast in iron. And like a gas chamber, Varla, a real fun gal.")