Wilson by Daniel Clowes

Wilson Reviews

• 
  Greg

  
  
  
  Wilson is that kind of person. The person who has no problem while you're sitting and reading to come up and start his own conversation with you. The not very lovable stranger who asks quasi-personal questions and then editorializes about your life. The sad asshole type who just can't help but engage strangers and obliviously feel like these strangers really give a fuck about what he thinks.
  
  Part of the character of Wilson is self-incrimination of what I imagine the average Clowes reader is, and to what I picture Clowes himself to be like. Wilson says the rude things about people and modern life that I know I find myself sometimes thinking, and I'm sure I'm not so unique or alone in thinking these things. Wilson is saying the same kinds of things that Clowes was saying against all different types of people in his earlier short work in Eightball, and in the serialized story Ghost World. There is just something uncharming now about the stance Wilson has. Enid making snarky little observations about the poverty of modern life had a funny and cute feeling to it--Wilson saying similar things has the uncomfortableness to it. Yeah, maybe it was kind of counter-culture and good, or maybe it was necessary as a tween (shoot me in the face for using this term) to see through the bullshit and set yourself apart from it (as in the first half or so of Ghost World), but there has to be more to it. As the girls in Ghost World showed, the seeing through the bullshit is only half of the battle, and it's depressing as fuck if you can see through the bullshit and end up just getting caught in it anyway, or not be able to do anything more than see through the shit.
  
  Wilson is sort of a less cute version of Enid now all grown up, middle-aged and bitter (and well male). Who see's how empty and worthless so much of modern culture is, can speak out against it, but has no answers for even living his own life in any meaningful kind of way. Maybe I'm just reading into what I thin Clowes and his other readers are like, but it seems like this is the ugly personal side of him (and them, and well me), the asshole who thinks he (or she) is better than all of the poor schmucks living the lie, but is really just a miserable sack of shit. Good times.
  
  
• 
  Ray

  I just watched the film adaptation of Wilson, a very indie dark comedy starring Woody Harrelson as the titular character who wouldn't be my first choice but he did a good job--but this is a book review not a film review!) so I thought I would reread the graphic novel and think about what it is I love so much about it.
  
  Wilson is an everyman who is both annoying optimistic and cynically grumpy. I can't quite place what it is that is so hilarious. It's pure Daniel Clowes, no other cartoonist could ever get away with such depictions. The experimental method in which every page is a different style is interesting, and the one-page almost newspaper strip bits work very well. It makes the 77 pages feel like a true full novel.
  
  It starts off random, and turns into something of a story with ex-wives and kidnapping and a prison sentence. It continues into his life; maybe the end of his life.
  
  A sad pathetic story of empty people and losers and the dryest one-liners ever, and somehow it is beautiful and it is above all funny!
  
  I for one love it.
• 
  Scarlet Cameo

  Una compilación de tiras cómicas que demuestran que la vida es una porquería, siendo nuestro protagonista una de esas personas que detestan la compañía pero aun así la buscan.
  
  Aquí vemos la vida tratada con ironía, con desprecio y con una serie de pequeñas catástrofes que pueden volverse grandes problemas, especialmente cuando Wilson, cansado del vació de su vida decide buscar a su ex-esposa e hija. A partir de ese momento veremos como la vida de Wilson da un cambio significativo a pesar de que, en cierto modo, todo sigue siendo igual.
  
  En un mundo donde varias veces hemos visto a personajes inadaptados, Wilson destaca por aceptar su condición y al mismo tiempo combatirla mientras lo odia. Siendo misántropo por momentos y depresivo por otros, realmente nunca encontramos a Wilson como alguien agradable y aun así deseamos que le vaya bien, no porque creamos que lo merezca, sino para así ver su reacción. Wilson es un marginado en toda la regla y, en su conocimiento, desea que todos los demás lo noten y lo acepten, pero al mismo tiempo él nota que le encanta ser el extranjero porque no sabe ser normal, no sabe como pertenecer a estas personas, y busca forzar su lugar de las maneras más extrañas y negras posibles.
  
  Definitivamente, el personaje es interesante y alguien como cualquiera,yo personalmente me vi en varias ocasiones reflejada en él, lo cual no me causo gracias, pero que lo descubres gracias a que Clowes busca reflejar lo peor de la vida en este personaje, en este ermitaño cuarentón necesitado de cariño que, en algún punto, somo todos. Algo que llamo bastante mi atención fue al cambio en el dibujo, de una historieta a otra te encontrabas con que el color, el estilo y el trazo eran completamente diferentes, repitiéndose durante la totalidad del libro, pero pocas veces siendo consecutivo entre las distintas tiras.
• 
  Sam Quixote

  Bill Bryson-lookalike Wilson lives alone with his puppy, narrating his life to no-one. When his father dies he decides to look for his ex-wife, in the process discovering that he has a teenage daughter he’s never met. Together they strike up a flawed plan to (illegally) reunite their family.
  
  Dan Clowes is best known for his oddball characters from Dan Pussey to Enid from Ghost World, Marshall from Mister Wonderful and David Boring. Wilson is my favourite of Clowes’ creations because he’s batshit insane. He’s a complete lunatic who likes to believe he’s a people person but when he strikes up random conversations with strangers, ends up insulting them. He’s a self-centred, rude, abrasive asshat whose behaviour borders on the sociopathic - but he’s so damn funny!
  
  His conversations with strangers are hilarious, berating a woman he started talking to with “For the love of Christ, don’t you ever shut up?”, mocking a man for saying he’s in IT by saying random groupings of letters, even at one point mailing a box of shit to his former sister-in-law! I was laughing out loud so many times reading this.
  
  Clowes structures the book so that each page is like a self-contained story but they add up to a coherent, cleverly put-together narrative. You can’t stop reading once you start, Wilson’s life is such a train-wreck in slow-motion, you can’t look away! But even though each page often ends with a punchline there’s a lot of pathos, tragedy, and drama within the story.
  
  Through his random interactions we slowly see Wilson’s life come into focus: the failed marriage, the distant relationship with his father, how isolated he is without family, friends or a job, how adrift he is within the modern world. Clowes reflects the many sides to Wilson by varying the art style constantly throughout. It’s an inspired psychological portrait of a complex, probably crazy, person and how they view their world.
  
  As funny as Wilson is, it wouldn’t have been as good if it had just been a barrage of jokes, one after the other, so I’m glad Clowes mixed in the other elements to give the comedy more depth and nuance.
  
  Wilson is one of Dan Clowes’ best books that definitely holds up on re-reading. It’s a smart comic but a really fun one too that all indie comics fans will enjoy.
• 
  Melki

  The first two panels of this graphic novel feature Wilson proclaiming, I LOVE PEOPLE! and I'M A PEOPLE PERSON! I can't tell if he's hopelessly optimistic or just self-deluded, as he spends the years of his life that are shared with the reader as a mostly miserable, unfriendly son of a bitch.
  
  A lifetime of loneliness and dread have made Wilson a pretty unlikable fellow, and he freely shares his misery with his dying father, his ex-wife, anyone he sits near at the coffee shop, everyone he passes on the street, etc.
  
  Wilson's only redeeming quality? His love for his dog Pepper.
  
  Clowes employs different drawing styles on almost every page. I like this technique, as it helps alleviate the dreariness. Make no mistake - this is a thoroughly depressing, yet somehow compelling read.
  
  This book is certainly not a waste of time. Despite the gloom and doom, it is an absorbing look at a misspent life. If nothing else, Wilson serves as a shining example of how NOT to be.
• 
  Erica

  The solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, yet not nearly short enough life of an internet troll who doesn't know how to use the internet.
• 
  Loyd

  Daniel Clowes has a misanthrope's spirit trapped in a young man's brain. His books are difficult to attach "stars" to, only pros and cons. Pros: exquisite art and book production; unique sensibility and approach; expert use of the comic medium. Cons: sour, nihilistic characters self-deluded that they are truth-seekers; the occasional obvious, smart-aleck, gross-out punch-line; a sad, morbid view of relationships bordering on the pathological.
  
  Wilson is a sorry, wandering soul, deaf to the music of the world around him. He carries on a relentless internal monologue about the utter uselessness of modern life, and feels he is above such things. His only relationships are accidental; a man at a coffee shop, a woman who watches his dog occasionally; even a child he's never met that becomes more vital to Wilson as his life runs dry.
  
  So there you are. A beautiful book about an ugly, pointless man. Well worth reading, especially to explore the utter purposeless that some people feel, but take a shower when you're done.
• 
  Dan Schwent

  Wilson is the tale of an oblivious idiot who bumbles through life saying and sometimes doing horrible things. Socially horrible, not murder or anything.
  
  This tale of existential angst is not my favorite Dan Clowes book but it's still pretty good. Clowes shows us a glimpse of the life of a man very nearly divorced from self awareness. Wilson goes looking for his ex-wife, mails his former in-laws a box of shit, finds out he has a daughter, and winds up in prison for six years for kidnapping her, all the while never seeing how his actions affect other people.
  
  The story is broken up into one page segments. Art styles change dramatically between pages. I'm not sure what this is supposed to signify. Each page ends in a punchline, either hilarious or putting an exclamation point on what a dumb ass Wilson is.
  
  If you already like Clowes, you'll want to read this but this shouldn't be anyone's first Clowes book. I like it just enough that I'm going to hold on to it for another read at some nebulous time down the road rather than haul it to Half Price Books.
• 
  ♥ Sandi ❣

  A graphic novel, in single page stories, tells of a middle aged divirced man through the rest of his life to a senile old man, alone. Pages of losing his father, finding his ex-wife, kidnapping his grown daughter, going to prison, looking for his dog, marrying his dog sitter, meeting his grandson and as the circle of life moves, ending up alone.
  Story contains a lot of dry humor. Will be made into a movie in 2017.
  3.5 stars
• 
  Larnacouer de SH

  Well, based on people's comments, can say how funny Wilson is. For me? Yes, Wilson is self-deprecating person who is a quirky sense of humor is good enough but in terms of my enjoyment, it was only moderately okay. It didn't entertain me as they told me before. It wasn't full of story or humorous. It just felt empty.
  
  But i liked Clowes style, I'll check out other graphics which belongs to him later. 😅
• 
  Sooraya Evans

  A douche tries to reconnect with his ex wife and lost daughter.
  The narrative is broken down into 6 panel segments that start off witty and end with disparaging punchlines. I don't understand why the art style couldn't be consistent.
  
• 
  Sharon

  Daniel Clowes is a genius, period. He captures a particular voice so well, the voice of the misanthrope longing to make a connection, yet turned off by what society has become at every juncture. In his newest work, Wilson, he nails this again with a character nearing middle age and pondering the universal questions of family, what his life meant, what to do for a living, etc. Of course, Clowes' twist on this makes the material both exceedingly depressing and funny, often both at the same time. The book is done in a collection of one-page strips, mostly ending in a gag or revelation, in different expressive cartooning styles during a formative period in Wilson's life. As he ponders why he never had a family, Wilson turns around to yell at a screaming child in the playground to shut up in the last panel; as he tries to make a friendly connection with a businessman in the airport and the man describes his job in terms of corporate management-speak, Wilson sobs in the last panel and proclaims "God, it's so terrible the way people live."
  
  Just read all of Clowes...he'll make you laugh, he'll make you cry, and if you're a certain type of person, you'll identify with all his work a little too closely....
• 
  Fact100

  "Çocukken salağın tekiydim. Yetişkin olacağım günü hayal edip bunun ne kadar harika olacağını düşünürdüm. Özgürlük, para, güç...
  Ama beklediğin gibi olmuyor. Çocukken önünde koca bir gelecek, büyük bir potansiyel oluyor ama sonra hepsi kuruyup gidiyor. Başkan ya da beyzbol oyuncusu olamayacağım... Gerçek anlamda param da olmayacak... Bazı şeylere farklı açılardan bakman gerekiyor... Bu da seni anı yaşamaya zorluyor.
  Sıcak bir duş, hışırdayan yapraklar... Birdenbire böyle boktan şeyler büyük anlam kazanıyor." (s.48)
  
  3/5
• 
  Jamie

  I think it was cool that every page could be interpreted as a different story, yet together they greater a bigger picture. I loved Wilson, even though he was awful... I do tend to like characters like that in books :p. There was some true character development in this book, and while it might have been cliche it was still heartwarming.
• 
  pierlapo quimby

  Non ce n'è per nessuno, Clowes è il migliore.
  (certo il mio avatar sembrerebbe palesare un clamoroso conflitto d'interessi, ma si sa, di questi tempi il conflitto d'interessi è aria fritta, roba da archeologia giuridica, sterile proclama che riempie le bocche dei soliti contestatori comunisti privi del benché minimo argomento e che non hanno a cuore il bene del Paese...)
  
  Edit:
  Be', ho cambiato avatar
  
  Edit dell'edit, in occasione della rilettura 2019:
  ho di nuovo cambiato avatar, ma l'aver scelto un feticcetto di Chris Ware nulla toglie al caro vecchio Dan Clowes, che resta pur sempre il migliore. Ciò detto, colpisce pensare che solo dieci anni fa il dibattito pubblico era completamente assorbito dalle discussioni sul conflitto di interessi, quasi non si parlava d'altro, eppure è passata una stagione politica non un'era, bastava dar tempo al tempo; invece la faccenda delle mani nelle tasche degli italiani è sempre à la page.
• 
  Andrea Motta

  Deliciosamente irônico, pessimista e nonsense (com esteriótipos e preconceitos) - e ainda assim cativante.
• 
  Enn_oui

  Devastante, se ne esce distrutti.
  A colpi di odiosissima e scorretta sincerità si insinua nelle crepe, nei piccoli disequilibri e deflagra.
  
  Lo fa poi con uno strategico espediente, la divisione in capitoli che paiono autonomi e slegati, anche come stile grafico.
  
  E la somma di questi frammenti schizofrenici si ricompone poi con un effetto valanga invisibile, non sai perché ma non respiri.
  
  Poche volte ho letto di inadeguatezza con questa sintesi e crudezza. Infilandoci pure qualche risata.
  
  Vi farà malissimo. Non è masochismo, è solo sincerità.
• 
  Tania

  Brillant. Wilson is an awful chap, narcissistic to the core. There are moments that break your heart for those around him, too many moments I saw a reflection of ‘someones’ I know, and even a couple of discomfiting moments where my own thought came out of his mouth. Humorously sad.
• 
  Craig Maxwell

  My first Daniel Clowes graphic novel and what a fantastic witty introduction. The character Wilson is completely hysterical individual that I completely fell in love with.
• 
  Alan

  A really awful man, Wilson, but you can't stop reading.
• 
  Laura

  Wilson is a cynical old bastard. Wilson's redeeming quality is that he loves his dog, Pepper.
• 
  Sandy Plants

  Fuck this fucking book! I’m tired of this old-man, misanthrope trope...
• 
  Stacy

  I liked the different art styles on every page and the format. The story, idk yet.
• 
  Mary Montgomery

  Wilson the character was, frankly, insufferable. It was just one page strips of the main character Wilson and his thoughts or (almost always one sided) conversations following a progression of his life.
  The drawing style went from classic Clowes with fairly detailed realistic drawings of the characters to a much more cartoony style, which I did not care for.
  Overall I just did not form any connection to the character or care about the plot or progression even though it wasn’t a bad story.
• 
  Metin Yılmaz

  Daniel Clowes tarzına alışkın olanların seveceği, güzel bir çizgi roman. Özellikle eleştiriler çok net ve sert.
• 
  Charles Hatfield

  Wilson is a remarkably acrid, unpleasant work that follows a certain inexorable logic and rhythm that ultimately become as predictable as a Cathy Guisewite Sunday strip. In each self-contained one-page episode, the titular Wilson indulges in a grandiose or absurd monologue (or a failed, one-sided dialogue with someone else) that soars ever higher into self-deluding fatuity, then pops like a pin-stuck balloon into some comic comeuppance or anticlimax, or else a cruel rejoinder that would be shocking were the rhythms of the book not so predictable. The pacing is as reliable as a finely tuned motor, but the compulsive repetition of the method renders the humor arid and tedious. That may be part of the point: Wilson is deliberately structured to emphasize existential torpor, boredom, and flattening of affect, punctuated with sudden bursts of incivility or outrage, and the flatness of the contemporary Sunday strip may be the perfect vehicle for that feeling. But the results are off-putting.
  
  The smartass side of Clowes and the humanly insightful side are ever at war with each other, and so it is with Wilson, a work that, like Clowes' great Ghost World and "Caricature," seeks to sound out the limitations of a world-weary, cynical POV even as it enacts that cynicism. In Wilson the tug o'war is made especially bitter by the compression enforced by the one-page strip format. The consolation here is Clowes' visual craft, which tackles each page in a different style, from naturalism to bigfoot cartooning, the shifts in style presumably matching changes in Wilson's mood or self-conception. This is all exceptionally well-done, smart as hell really, but the emotional outflow of the work is so constricted, the results such a study in willed flatness, that I don't imagine rereading it anytime soon. Again, an acrid work, stunted in feeling.
• 
  Matthew Curtis Cornett

  I'm not really much of a "comic book reader." In fact, I eschew almost all graphic novels and comics, but I picked this up on recommendation from a friend who said "That new graphic novel by Daniel Clowes isn't very good, but you might like it. Here--check it out. [tosses the book on my desk:] You liked Synechdoche, NY, right?"
  
  It's the story of a sad, lonely, extroverted man who can't seem to get a handle on why everything around him turns to shit. Each page is stylistically different from the last, which provides a stark contrast to the fact that none of the main characters in the story change or grow--least of all, the anti-hero Wilson.
  
  The great thing about this book is the fact that there is no internal dialogue or narration; nary a thought bubble or narration box, common to so many comics, appears within the confines of this hardback. It made me wonder what my life would be like if I never kept a thought to myself.
  
  If, unlike the friend who loaned me this book, you don't mind delving into a piece of fiction that paints an unrelentingly bleak and sometimes darkly funny picture of a middle-aged man's existence in Oakland, California then you might want to pick this one up.
• 
  Kevin

  This is pretty different from the usual Clowes book. Instead of the odd David Lynch touches of his previous work, Clowes leans more into Ivan Brunetti territory here. Meaning, some of these pages (each chapter is a one page story) are pretty harsh--but in a hilarious way! Wilson, the "hero" of the story, often spends his time trying to be friendly and positive until he eventually erupts in misanthropy. I also love the weird jumps in cartoon style throughout the book--sometimes it's classic Clowes and sometimes it looks like a goofy Andy Capp strip. This is a short, quick read and some may be bummed that it's not longer but there's are many many laughs. It's one of those books that I'll be recommending to people for a long time.