Mister Wonderful: A Love Story

A middle-aged man goes on a blind date and a flurry of fears and hopes run through his mind.

This book is - dare I say the dreaded word - cute. It's a very brief book that could easily be read in one sitting of approximately 20 minutes. We see the main character Marshall on only one night of his life, although he gives us some back story and dreams about the future. That night is one in which he's been set up on a blind date by one of his married friends. We see both the actual events and what he is thinking, including a variety of 'I'm not good enough for this person' type thoughts interspersed with 'I hope that's not the type of person my friends think is for me' while he waits for his date to arrive and then a bunch of imaginings show more about this woman's past life and their future together after he meets Natalie. Throughout this are a number of identifiable moments and a great deal of laughs (sometimes the humor is there precisely because his thoughts are so spot-on identifiable!).

The illustrations are in the "comic strip" kind of style of graphic novel (think, Chris Ware's illustrations) -- they are colorful with bold lines and live in that space somewhere between the cartoonish and realistically rendered. The book itself is an unusual size, allowing for the illustrations to flow in a landscape orientation with several panels going across each page.

The book concludes with the wrapping up of the date, so the future is hinted at but vague at best. If you're the type of person that likes neatly tied up endings, this book won't be for you. But otherwise, I'd recommend this book for a quick, funny, and ultimately touching read. show less

If you like Clowes (and what asshole doesn't?) this will not disappoint. The characterization and drawing are excellent, and he really takes advantage of the unusual horizontal shape of the page. As is often the case with Clowes, the characters are a perfect combination of the uncomfortably familiar (I'm just like that!) and the weirdly exotic (no one is really like that!) that leaves you feeling both squirmy and relieved. And, as is often the case with Clowes, I loved every frame.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2015/08/mister-wonderful-love-story-by-daniel.html ]

The Oscar-nominated Clowes, creator of [b:Ghost World|62953|Ghost World|Daniel Clowes|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170613516s/62953.jpg|43003], [b:Wilson|7074482|Wilson|Daniel Clowes|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1288022561s/7074482.jpg|7328391], and Eightball, crafts a bittersweet tale of a middle-aged man's search for companionship. Originally serialized in The New York Times Magazine, Mister Wonderful follows the neurotic, divorced Marshall on his first date in six years. In his typical fashion, Clowes relies on caricature as he expertly reveals complex emotional layers mixed within a heady collection of humorous and poignant scenes. This all-to-real vision incorporates many of our own fears, inadequacies, and hopes. show more Simultaneously simple/complex, beautiful/ugly, and romantic/cynical, the thin (77 pages) volume engages the reader, successfully lingering long after the last page. show less

Just lovely. I am so impressed with Clowes' illustration style and understated writing. He is a treasure of American literature and illustration.

An older, slightly desperate man arrives for a blind date. His self-deprecating -- nay, self-loathing -- interior monologue actually drowns out his conversation. As the evening progresses he lurches from hope to despair. But his date is a good match for him, after all.

Daniel Clowes' work is assured, though at its heart is the usual negativity and distrust of people; his work is filled with anomie. This is not a negative story however. It finishes with a peaceful and positive scene.

Recipe for Dan Clowes/Chris Ware graphic novel: one man, deprived of a healthy social life; one woman, slightly less maladjusted than the man; one cold, clever world ready to kick both in the teeth while they're down. Kudos guys, you make the most enjoyable read out of the most unenviable characters!

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

I've been a big fan of comics artist Daniel Clowes since around issue #5 or so of his originally self-published Eightball, and have tried to be a regular reader of all his work ever since then; but while I'm a great admirer of his darkly surreal, more narrative work like Ghost World or David Boring, I confess that I've always had a low tolerance for the other type of work Clowes regularly does, which can only be described as pointless exercises in neurotic masturbation, which back in Eightball thankfully usually limited itself to little four- or show more eight-page fillers at the ends of occasional issues. And that's what makes his new Mister Wonderful so unfortunate, because it's eighty entire pages of this masturbatory material, a literal one-joke gag about a balding schlub who endlessly worries over several hundred thought bubbles that his blind date is too attractive and witty for him. And with this originally being published serially in The New York Times Sunday Magazine last year, that makes it doubly unfortunate, because that makes this the only exposure to Clowes that many of the Updike-loving crowd over there is ever going to get, which means it's going to be harder than ever to convince these people to take comics seriously. I mean, kudos to Clowes for adding another impressive-looking hardback book to his publishing oeuvre; but for fans of his who are patiently waiting for another masterpiece like Velvet Glove, it's recommended that they skip this trifle altogether.

Out of 10: 7.0 show less