Money is tight at 62 West Wallaby Street. Wallace has spent his last coppers on Gromit's birthday present - a pair of remote-controlled Techno-Trousers - and the pals must take in a lodger to make ends meet. Will their new housemate be the solution to their problems... or the cause of some more...?

For those that have been trapped in a cave on the Moon for the last 20 years, The Wrong Trousers is a 1993 animated claymation movie starring the crackpot inventor Wallace and his super smart dog Gromit.

It's played to death every year at Christmas and, with the exception of a small island of pygmies that have never come into contact with another race on the planet, everyone on the entire planet should be intimately familiar with the story... and if they're not then I can't for the life of me think why they'd want to buy this graphic novel.

Actually... come to think of it... I can't understand why anyone who has seen the film would want to buy this graphic novel either. The story basically revolves around Gromit's birthday present (a pair of ex-NASA robotic Techno-Trousers) and Wallace's new lodger - a penguin who is a master criminal, who disguises himself as a chicken, wanted by the police. He seems to be the perfect lodger, and even ends up turning Wallace against Gromit, when Gromit pieces together that the penguin and the chicken are one and the same. The penguin plans to use Gromit's Techno-Trousers to steal a priceless diamond... but Gromit plans to stop him.

Illustrator Bill Kerwin has pretty much had to stick faithfully with the shots of the movie. In fact I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that he simply sketched from publicity stills for this collection. And that's a real shame. If Kerwin had been allowed to have a little freedom then this might have been an interesting read. As it stands, it's merely a scene by scene recreation of the movie.

And the price is almost hysterical. £15 for what is basically a Christmas annual! One for die-hard Wallace & Gromit fans only.

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Darren Rea