Review by Frank Plowright

In 1974 teenager Idris and his mother journey to a remote area of Wales where she’s to take on the duties of housekeeper for a crippled and ill-tempered old man. Life in a small community differs greatly from life on the farm, and Idris isn’t greatly adaptable, so everything new is disturbing.

Perhaps the use of a village shop indicates The League of Gentleman as an influence as Dix sets a similar path a turn away from normality. He creates a squalid atmosphere in a town seemingly populated by those recently released from an asylum, yet in reality only living their lives remotely and far away from a need to conform. Eccentricity is the starting point for most characters, drawn as indistinct and lumpy, but it turns out there really is something happening beyond the knowledge of mortal men. It says something for how successfully Dix supplies the strange that when Idris dreams at one point, until the end it just seems business as usual.

There’s a plot here about Nazis and monsters beneath the sea, and if you want to apply literary designations, this drops into the ‘coming of age’ category, but that’s largely irrelevant as The Idris File is really a vehicle for Dix’s perversely funny inclinations. There’s a carefully cultivated sordid undertone reeking of Players No. 6 and tripe and onions, where everyone seems to be auditioning for a Carry On film.

The conversations are glorious, represented by the judgemental fur coat and no knickers specimen commenting on Idris as seen on the sample art. The only exceptions to the rule are the Nazis, who take everything extremely seriously, and therefore are inevitably being set up for an almighty and undignified fall where they’re the butt of the joke.

Anyone who appreciates an absurd comedy won’t read a funnier graphic novel this year.