Mister Wonderfulis an unconventional romance. And although he’s short-tempered and not always honest, he’s got a solid core of decency that makes it impossible not to root for him. Yet despite being terribly caught up in his own fears, Marshall still notices the people around him. Marshall’s internal monologue alternates between self-deprecation and self-justification, and often intrudes so far into the world as to block out the speech bubbles of the people who are talking, as if to signal that Marshall is not truly paying attention to them.
Mister Wonderfulis a decidedly warm-hearted story. If anything, he makes matters worse by constantly fantasising both glorious and disastrous futures for himself and Natalie, his mind wandering off until he’s forcibly brought back to reality.Ĭlowes hasn't gone entirely soft: there's still evidence of his old venom in certain scenes, particularly when Marshall and Natalie go to a party at a rich couple's house – but Natalie, his date, is an hour late: despair! Then she arrives, and is attractive and pleasant: joy! Then he goes to the bathroom, and when he comes back she’s gone: despair! Wait, she’s just outside talking on her mobile phone: joy! And so on, for the entire night. What follows is a roller coaster of a night, with Marshall’s feelings see-sawing between the heights of joy and the depths of despair. Mister Wonderful, the new thing to be found is absolutely the last thing I was expecting from Clowes: a romantic comedy. Even though his visual style is distinctive and immediately recognisable, it is versatile and constantly evolving, and even though his attitude and preoccupations remain much the same as they were in 1989, when the firstĮightballwas published, each new work by Clowes reveals something new, something he has never done before. Ghost World, which is nothing like the blisteringly cynical Wilson. Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Ironis nothing like the melancholy No two Daniel Clowes graphic novels are alike: the bizarre and surreal For 15 years he serialised both long and short stories in his comic-book seriesĮightball, establishing his reputation as a master cartoonist, a cynical observer of human weakness and an audaciously experimental storyteller. They are reflective and naturalistic, emphasising character over action and often expressing a jaded or tragic view of human nature.ĭaniel Clowes has long been a leader of this trend, though not by pushing himself forwards so much as by setting an example that other artists were eager to follow. SINCE THE EARLY 1990s there has been a trend in American comics that one might loosely call literary, as its practitioners create works reminiscent of literary fiction. GRAPHIC FICTION: Mister Wonderful, By Daniel Clowes, Jonathan Cape, 80pp.
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