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Way back when I first started writing blogs, I was committed to writing what I called “Semi-annual Clowes updates.” Well, it has been exceedingly hard to write these Clowes updates because the writer hasn’t released a new graphic novel since Ice Haven in 2005. Finally, almost five years since his last graphic novel, Clowes will be releasing his newest work Wilson this coming May. With this news, I give you the “half-decade annual Clowes update.”

Wilson is the first book from the legendary cartoonist that will not be reprinted from Clowes’ seminal Eightball comic. The story has never been serialized before, and will be released as an entirely original graphic novel. It will also be Clowes first published work from publisher Drawn & Quarterly, not from his mainstay Fantagraphics or recent publisher Pantheon Books. The story will be told in a variety of different art styles as one page comic gags, similar to his last Eightball issue The Death-Ray. The character Wilson is lonely egoist who finds himself searching for his long separated ex-wife. When he finally reconnects with her it’s also revealed that he has a long-lost daughter that was given up for adoption shortly after their divorce. The three all reunited with a disastrous and deluded outcome.

Much like Jim Jarmusch’s 2005 film Broken Flowers, the sad protagonist must find some sort of redemption from his past mistakes and current idle-state. Wilson finds Clowes following a more mature theme, similar to his only other recent material Mister Wonderful from The New Yorker. Hopefully, Wilson will spark the fire back in Clowes, so the next update won’t be in another five years.

-Jon

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