Customer Reviews

Wilson

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

What a fun read! Each page of this slim oversize book is designed as a self contained comic strip. The effect is an episodic revelation of Wilson's story in phases like the peeling of an onion. Once Clowes has defined Wilson's irrepressible personality, the vignettes evolve from the slice-of-life non sequitur of the opening pages, and begin to relate to one another in development of the plot. Clowes varies his drawing style from one strip to the next. The art goes from Schultz-esque cartoon abstractions to representational warts-and-all realism in service of the narrative.

This is Clowes most mature and emotionally satisfying work to date, yet his dark acerbic humor remains, manifesting itself in the cranky eccentric voice of the title character. Wilson is a brilliant graphic novel, sure to be cited as one of the best in the same breath as Ware's Jimmy Corrigan or Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp. It is a celebration of the sort of storytelling one can only experience through the misunderstood medium of comics.

Daniel Clowes assigned himself an unusual formal constraint in this book; it consists of a sequence of seventy full-page comics, each with six or seven frames, each a complete vignette, most with the familiar rhythm and concluding punchline of a Sunday newspaper gag cartoon like "Nancy" or "Peanuts." (Be forewarned, though, the tone of the writing has little in common with those strips, and Wilson's "punchlines" often traffic in cruelty and humiliation.) Each page is recognizably in the hand of Clowes, but the styles differ from one strip to the next, from big-nose cartoons to quite naturalistic renderings, with many different color schemes. Every page features the musings and adventures of Wilson, a self-defeating, socially inept and exceedingly unlikeable protagonist. We get glimpses of Wilson's dialogues with himself and his interaction with others, including his father, his ex-wife and his beloved dog Pepper, across a considerable span of years. Rather astonishingly, through the accumulation of single-page strips that if taken independently may seem glib, slight or superficial, Clowes builds up a moving book that lingers in the mind as much more than the sum of its parts. It gives rise to thoughts about the need for human interaction, the nature of memory and the possibility of wisdom. The most resonant contents of the book emerge from the relationships between the individual strips, much the way action can be implied by the blank "gutter" between the panels of a comic strip. Easy to read, but I'm sure there's much I missed the first time through: I expect to enjoy reading this several times.

Long time Clowes fan. My issue here is not that this isn't funny, plenty of his best stuff is more drama (like the story Caricature in Eightball).

My problem is that Wilson is just not surprising or that rich. This territory is already well trod in David Boring, Ghostworld, Ray Gun, Ice Haven and this doesn't bring much new to the party.

I feel like Clowes is trying to hold himself back because he thinks it is subtle and literary, but instead it is coming off slight. He needs to write his heart out.

After the success of Terry Zwigoff's film version of Ghost World, it was almost inevitable that Dan Clowes would move away from the serialised strips of Eightball towards the longer, more ambitious graphic novel format. Clowes has of course produced works of graphic novel length - Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, David Boring, Ice Haven - but finally, after a much longer wait than was expected, Dan's first full-length original graphic novel has arrived - and it's been worth the wait.

Surprisingly, at first glance it seems like Dan Clowes hasn't really embraced the novel format and that Wilson would be suited to the writer-artist's usual episodic format. Although there is indeed a recurrent character and theme, the story initially seems to be broken up into standalone single page strips of 6-7 frames, with the final frame delivering an admittedly devastatingly witty punch-line. Not unexpectedly, Wilson turns out to be a typical Clowes sociopath who can't hold back his true nature, accosting strangers on the street and in coffee shops, alienating friends, family and neighbours through cringingly embarrassing put-down remarks, sometimes intentionally and sometimes despite himself.

Initial appearances however are deceptive and, if he doesn't exactly change in any positive manner over the arc of the story, Wilson acquires rather more depth and character at the same time as he acquires a family, a lost one and, inevitably, a rather dysfunctional one, adding up to a touching and witty account of a life of crushing disappointments with the world and with himself. If there's a film version of this, it has to be directed by Kelly Reichardt with Will Oldham in the role of Wilson. How about 'Old Misery' for a title?

The whole look and feel of the book is perfect - a large album format hardcover with heavy stock paper - Clowes' artwork in several styles that switch between cartoony and semi-realistic from strip to strip looking absolutely gorgeous. Every single frame is a complete delight, every page genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, the graphic novel as a whole adding up to a new level of substance and maturity - on the part of the author at least. This is Clowes' best work to date.

This graphic novel by Daniel Clowes is about a misanthrope named "Wilson". It is told in 69 one page comic strips of 6 to 8 panels. The pages are drawn in several different styles, ranging from realistic to cartoonish. Although each page stands on it's own, and ends with a punchline, taken together they tell a story. It is a very good tragi-comic story, although Wilson is not someone you would want to spend time with in real life.

I was excited to see this when it came out, but the story and artwork seemed pretty knocked off to me...Clowes is always interesting, but this is one of his least inspired efforts. Also, I don't understand why a simple comic like this needs to be published as a heavy, grandiose hardcover book with extra thick paper. It really felt like overkill. If it had been in a humble magazine format I think my expectations would have been a bit lower.

First, this is a brilliant book because of its constraints. Told in the single page comic strip form that still dominates Sunday newspapers, this book works with its limitations to tell the tale of a misanthropic character attempting to reconnect with his family. Clowes changes style from strip to strip without losing the thread of the story. One page could look like a Peanuts comic and the other one could be a semi-realistic rendering on par with Mary Worth. It's actualy amazing how much angst and storytelling and depth Clowes gets out of this limited format. In one strip, he is talking about his dead mother and he notes that it's like the ocean where one day you just aren't allowed to look at the ocean any more and you didn't want to look at the ocean for the most part but you wanted the option. And then he swears. I was struck by the way it made me think about my friends and family members who have died. I might not have always liked them, but I wanted to have them around.

The main problem with this book is the way that Wilson is a thoroughly unlikeable character. SOmetimes an unlikeable character can be interesting in his own right (Madame Bovary is a favorite) but in this book it just doesn't translate. Wilson's story has great opportunities for bathos. His father dies. He finds his ex-wife and discovers that he has a daughter by her. They try to reconnect with the daughter by kidnapping her. He ends up in jail. However, there are no flashes of insight or attempts at reconciliation that work. Wilson is a horrible creep from the beginning to the end.

Is this Clowes' best book? Maybe not.
Is it a great comic? Very much so.


Clowes' art has never looked better. It's nice to look at the different styles being utilized in each page, and the coloring is top notch.

I like Daniel Clowes. His work is very rich, but most of his work has the same melancholy feel. He does it VERY well, and makes great points about humanity. But it all has the same feeling.

Although it's full of melancholy... it is one of the funnest, dark humored, examples of humanity. It follows the mid to later life (40's into 50's) of a sad man. The title character, Wilson, is often a very bad person... maybe even a sociopath, but we feel for him all the same.

Every page is done in a different style, ranging from very detailed to minimalistic cartoons. The often dark subject matter is off set by the humor, and Clowes' bright color pallet.

Wilson is a fifty-something who lives alone with his puppy, striking up conversations with strangers and then insulting them. One day he goes looking for his ex-wife, finds out they have a daughter, kidnap the teenage girl, goes to prison, and gets out to pick up his life where he left off - alone, minus the dog.

For a book that's full of sadness and pathos, Wilson is surprisingly funny mostly because Clowes makes Wilson say remarkably insensitive things to people. A woman is telling someone about her sister who's been diagnosed with lyphoma and Wilson butts in, tells her his 82 year old dad is dying, then gets upset when he doesn't get the attention. When he gets a haircut he says "Hey, guess what? I'm a grandfather! Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are" to which the barber says nothing, his face expressionless. It's just the delivery and strange way of saying things that made that strip so funny. In some ways you like Wilson because he's so clueless and nasty but most of the time you're apt to think he's a sociopath.

I really enjoyed this book. It's short and a quick read being less than 80 pages but it's definitely one of Clowes' best up there with "Ghost World" and "Ice Haven", and easily his funniest. It's a very well told story and drawn in Clowes' distinctive style. Not just for Clowes fans but for anyone who likes comics.