Pussey Review

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis: Daniel Clowes's Pussey! revolves around the life and times of the eponymous character, Dan Pussey, creator the popular comic Nauseator, as he wends he way through the comic book industry and deals with his peers and his own social awkwardness and internal fantasies and dispositions.

My Thoughts: Someone (like yours truly) who has read many of Daniel Clowes's oeuvre will likely already notice that his protagonists tend to echo each other in their social ineptitude or misanthropy. Likewise, Pussey! carries on this torch in the blazing flames of satire as the book takes on a candid, honest-to-hell jab at the risible inanity of superhero comics and pseudo-intellectual, vainglorious snobbishness of their indie counterparts as well as the underhanded sexism in the comic book industry in general around the era most of this story takes place in (80s and 90s). On the contrast, it is this book's satirical nature that sets it apart from Clowes's other works which usually lament the lonely life of their socially inept or misanthropic main characters which, despite empathizing or at least sympathizing with, can get a little repetitive after a while. My only complaint here would be that the prose could get a bit too wordy, making this 54-page story feel like over 100 at times.

Final Thoughts: Pussey! is a witty satire worth picking up whether you're a Daniel Clowes fan or a casual reader hungry for a few helpings of dry humor.