Graphic Novel Review: ‘Cornelius’ by Marc Torices from Drawn+Quarterly

Cornelius: The Merry Life of a Wretched Dog by Marc Torices, published by Drawn and Quarterly, is at once a gripping noir mystery, a surreal exploration of existence, and an experiment with comic styles across decades. Torices, an animator and artist with extensive work in zines, co-founded Zangano Comix while still studying illustration, showing how daring he is in realizing his ideas. Cornelius shows this throughout, not only in the variety of art styles incorporated into the narrative but also as the reader shares Cornelius’s yearning for finding his meaning.

Cornelius begins with a wordless montage showing vivid landscapes across delicately painted watercolor skies. Amid them is a red dog, who frolics in the grass and water, playing with a frog throwing golden stones. Gradually, the dog discovers realistic items like janitorial equipment, bulk mail, and a typewriter before exploring too closely a noose. These are recurring themes as the reader comes to meet Cornelius, an anthropomorphic dog who works as a cleaner at a gym he cannot afford, aspiring to be a writer while living in an apartment with Ploisploy, another anthropomorphic dog, and Amir, a literal dog who can speak. That touch of oddity is just the first bit of suspended disbelief that makes the world in Cornelius magical while still very much dark.

The format evolves throughout. At some points, it’s a regular daily comic strip with four panels, or a strip with multiple lines showing how Cornelius just cannot catch a break. At other times, the comic has more than a dozen panels on a page as if out of a comic book, often even featuring covers with Cornelius posing with large-font titles. The art styles range from recognizable cartoons to puppets to abstract figures as well as gorgeous detailed paint blending light and shadow. Each of these styles lend to the growing mystery as Cornelius struggles to navigate a world full of zany, often unethical characters.

Cornelius’s mundane existence trying to find respect despite his janitorial position takes a strange turn when his friend Alspacka is kidnapped while they are out walking. Cornelius catches word of steep ransom demands, while he himself faces the drama of finding a new place to live with his abusive friend Avalutsa. Meanwhile, Alspacka experiences isolation and spends the time reflecting. The shocking ordeal does offer Cornelius something, though at steep cost: material toward his dreams of becoming a noted writer.