Wilson is a must-read graphic novel about a pathetic, yet perceptive, anti-hero

Wilson is a balding, bespectacled little man who walks his dog around Oakland, making observations about jerks with their ridiculously over-sized trucks, his confusion about why his parents used to often stare at the ocean for long periods of time, and jerks who don’t tell him his dog is cute.

He’s pathetic as can be, but somehow he’s relatable and funny. Definitely observant from his own perspective. I love it when he calls bullshit on equity managers and I.T. dudes who can’t seem to speak clearly about how they see and fit into the world.

Although the panels of this 2010 graphic-novel collection, beautifully illustrated with colors popping from Ghost World author Daniel Clowes, appear at first to not tell a running storyline, we learn a little ways in that they are indeed. Wilson heads by airplane and shuttle to see his dad, dying of cancer in a hospital as he is condescended to by a nurse who can’t believe he won’t eat his ice cream while Wilson informs the nurse his dad was a lit professor at Columbia.

Wilson regrets his life. He didn’t know enough about his parents. His wife left him years ago. He misses how good he had it as a child. His regrets lead him back to find his now “hooker” ex-wife Pippi. He also hires an investigator named Boggie - not Bogey - to find his given-up-for-adoption daughter.

For lovers of graphic novels, this is a must read. (It was also turned into a 2017 film with Woody Harrelson as Wilson. I don't know if that's any good but it's available on streaming services.)

5 out of 5 stars