{"id":7350,"date":"2011-09-27T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T08:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=7350"},"modified":"2011-09-26T19:07:07","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T19:07:07","slug":"unlucky-wally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2011\/09\/27\/unlucky-wally\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlucky Wally"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Raymond Briggs<\/strong> (Hamish Hamilton\/Sphere\/Penguin)
\nISBN: 978-0-24112-106-1(hb),<\/p>\n

Sphere pb: 978-074740-065-3\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Penguin pb: 978-0-74740-065-348<\/p>\n

Cartoonist, political satirist, philosopher, social commentator and delighter of children Raymond Briggs never forgets that kids think too. Many of his books for younger people revel in their fascination with all things gross and disgusting and he never underestimates the young mind’s capacity for empathy and understanding. Moreover, unlike so many working in the children’s book industry he isn’t afraid to be morose or even sad\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The comics industry has always cheerfully neglected Briggs’s graphic narratives which have reached more hearts and minds than Spider-Man<\/em> or Judge Dredd<\/em> ever will, yet his books remain among the most powerful and important in the entire field.<\/p>\n

His most famous works such as The Snowman<\/strong>, When the Wind Blows<\/strong> and Fungus the Bogeyman<\/strong> are but the tip of an incredibly impressive and uniquely British iceberg of dry wit, cheeky sarcasm and poignant fellow-feeling for even the most ghastly and graceless of protagonists.<\/p>\n

After leaving Wimbledon School of Art<\/em>, Central<\/em> and The Slade<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and completing a stint of National Service in Catterick – Briggs began work as an illustrator in 1958. He has produced 36 superb books; ranging from illuminating other creators’ poetry and stories to crafting his own dingily fabulous yarns such as this mordantly hilarious visual paean to the ultimate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Neveryman\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of our modern world.<\/p>\n

Unlucky Wally<\/strong> was first published in 1987 and details – in stunning, disgusting detail -the many and various physical, mental and emotional shortcomings of Mr. Wallace Burke: a man the universe just does not like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Wally isn’t smart, isn’t determined and perpetually suffers from a list of hideous ailments, everything from out-of-control earwax to mega-pimples to suspect testicles. Moreover, whatever he doesn’t have, he thinks he does: Wally is an Olympic-level hypochondriac.<\/p>\n

Even the natural world is out to get him: incontinent pigeons hang on for hours until Wally comes outside, maggots always cluster in his takeaway food and he’s never been in water that hasn’t got eels, frogspawn, leeches or jellyfish in it\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Yet even with all the repellent, repugnant and vile visions and situations potently pictured by the astoundingly gifted and iron-stomached Briggs in this painfully hilarious, blackly comedic treat, the author still manages to have a gentle last laugh on us all, by revealing a perfectly plausible happy ending for the unsavoury unfortunate who is surely (to some extent at least) an autobiographical extension of us all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Foolish fun with a pertinent point to make, Unlucky Wally<\/strong> is lovely tale for an often unloving world and one older kids in an increasingly \u00e2\u20ac\u0153looks-are-everything\u00e2\u20ac\u009d culture will adore – so isn’t it about time it was back in print?
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1987 Raymond Briggs. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raymond Briggs (Hamish Hamilton\/Sphere\/Penguin) ISBN: 978-0-24112-106-1(hb), Sphere pb: 978-074740-065-3\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Penguin pb: 978-0-74740-065-348 Cartoonist, political satirist, philosopher, social commentator and delighter of children Raymond Briggs never forgets that kids think too. Many of his books for younger people revel in their fascination with all things gross and disgusting and he never underestimates the young mind’s … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Unlucky Wally”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kids-all-ages"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-1Uy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}