Wilson

By Pamela Zoslov

Dan Clowes' Wilson is the kind of character that has long excited the imaginations of novelists, indie filmmakers and cartoonists like Clowes: a misanthropic loser who nonetheless feels superior to everyone else, and who spouts his cynical existential philosophy everywhere he goes. The type appeared in examples as diverse as John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, in the mumblecore movie GREENBERG, and in the American Splendor of Cleveland's Harvey Pekar.

Wilson first appeared in an illustrated book (Clowes hates the term “graphic novel”) in 2010 consisting of one-page stories starring the bespectacled (like the artist), balding (ditto) Wilson, a well-read, aimless son of a college professor who finds himself alone after his father dies and his only friends move away. The book elliptically tells the story of how Wilson finds his ex-wife, Pippi, and learns that she gave up their baby daughter for adoption. Suddenly hungry for familial connection, Wilson insists that Pippi accompany him on a journey to reconnect with the teenage daughter he didn't know he had, who's being raised in the suburbs by a wealthy family.