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Numbercrunching: Wilson by Daniel Clowes

Story pages: 71

Splash pages: 0

Price: $21.95

Price per page: 31 cents

Blimey, makes New Avengers look cheap by comparison. Yes it does.

Does it feel dirty, me mentioning New Avengers in this farrago of a review of Wilson? Yes it does.

Good. Distinctly different style of drawing used: 9

So what have we got here? The story of a selfish, inconsiderate, narcisstic man who isn't actually evil but comes pretty close to it in terms of callousness to other people. Told in one page strips.

Anyone he does show love for? His dog, Pepper. He even does her voice.

That's creepy. Oh it gets creepier.

I've never read Dan Clowes work before. How do I know if I'll like it? If you like Curb Your Enthusiasm, The UK Office and the like – the irredeemable monster with only moments of audience relation, then this should be up your street.

But it costs as much as a box set of those shows. I know I know.

And it's only 71 pages. 71 very pretty pages.

I don't know… Well screw you then! Screw you! Go back to reading your New Avengers!

I think I will. Good.

Hello?

Hello?

He's gone excellent. Right so this

I've finished reading New Avengers. That didn't take long.

It never does. With Wilson, the book rewards rereading and rereading. You can catch on foreshadowing you missed and…

New Avengers has foreshadowing. It does?

Yeah, like Elektra being a skrull and all that. Look! look! Here's something shiny.

Ooh! Ooh! Now… fetch!

Okay now where were we? Wilson reminds me more of Chros Ware's work that other books by Clowes – the formalised page style, the deliberate change in style with evey page beat, the injection of jollity into pathos, and the constant self-defeat of the protagonist in blind ignorance of the world. And dead animals. This is no bad thing and it's a chance for Clowes to stretch all kinds of muscles. It's a pricey read but it's a good read. Find a library with a good comics collection if you're strapped, this is the kind of thing they'll be bound to stock…

Found it found it. Good boy.

Can I have another issue of New Avengers now? Yes, yes you can.

Wilson is published by Drawn & Quarterly and is out now.

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