Daniel Clowes, Wilson (2009, Drawn and Quarterly 2010)
One of my joys at Christmas these days is that my family give me comics. This year I received a grand total of six hefty hardbacks, all by people I haven’t read anything by. Wilson is the least daunting, appearing at first glance to be made up of 80 or so single-page strips about the unkempt, misanthropic Wilson. In one strip he asks a woman to help him out by estimating the weight of a small parcel he plans to post, and then tells her it’s full of fresh dog poop. In another he tries to start up a conversation in a cafe with a man who politely indicates that he’s working on a laptop, and eventually delivers the punchline, ‘Hey asshole, I’m talking to you!’
That sort of thing is amusing in its own depressive way, and then the apparently unrelated strips come together into a coherent story arc. There’s a satisfying payoff to both the dog poop and the laptop man, and in the end it’s a kind of love story.
Me fail? I fly! 
Funny Nice post 🙂
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I’m catching up on all my leave blog reading and I must implore you to get a hold of Box Office Poison. You won’t be sorry.
Among my (self-purchased) Xmas comic books was the very pleasing collection of strips starring the semi-philosophical Too Much Coffee Man.
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Box Office Poison is now imprinted on my mind. Thanks Sam
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I’ve read it and re-read and loved the writing and the details.
And then I loaned it to a friend who is a great Beatles fan who pointed out literally dozens of references to the Beatles and John Lennon in particular that had completely gone over my head.
THAT’S why I love comics.
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OK, now you’ve sold me.
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