Chester Brown's autobiographical comics
Encyclopedia
Canadian
cartoonist
Chester Brown
attracted a lot of attention from critics and his peers in the early 1990s alternative comics
world when he began writing autobiographical comics
in his comic book
series Yummy Fur.
From this period, Brown produced a number of short stories, as well as two graphic novel
s, The Playboy
and I Never Liked You
(originally called Disgust and Fuck in the pages of Yummy Fur). The stories were much more personal and revealing than what Brown had attempted until then, and were drawn in a much more organic style with more organic page layouts, sometimes with a single small panel on a page.
In 2011, Brown returned to autobiographical when he published Paying For It
, an account of his experience with prostitutes.
The Yummy Fur autobiographical stories have all been collectedthe short stories in The Little Man
(1998, ISBN 978-1896597133), and the graphic novels The Playboy (1992, ISBN 978-0969670117) and Fuck as I Never Liked You (1994 ISBN 9780969670162; revised 2002, ISBN 978-1896597140). Paying For It (2011, ISBN 978-1770460485) has appeared only in book form.
stories, starting with "Helder" in Yummy Fur #19. The drawing style, done with a brush, became more and more sparse in an attempt to move away from the style of Ed the Happy Clown, which Brown had grown uncomfortable with. Most of the shorter stories, like "Helder", "Showing Helder" and "Danny's Story", took place not long before they were written, but the longer graphic novels took place mostly in Brown's adolescence in the 1970s.
Brown drew inspiration from Robert Crumb
and Harvey Pekar
's autobiographical stories, but he says the biggest push he had at the time was from Seth, his friend and fellow Vortex Comics
cartoonist; Joe Matt
, whose one-page autobiographical cartoons Brown and Seth discovered in 1989, and who eventually moved to Toronto and became friends with the two; and Julie Doucet
, whose comics were not explicitly autobiographical, but starred the cartoonist herself and contained autobiographical elements. All four cartoonists would shortly join Drawn and Quarterly
and become associated with one another to the public.
Some of Brown's autobiographical early stories dealt with himself as an adult, but he quickly ran into problems with friends who disagreed with his depiction of them. He then turned to his teenage years and produced some of his most highly acclaimed work. He says he found "the intense emotions of the period [of adolescence], as you’re figuring out sex and love and everything" to be "bound to produce rich material for stories."
The first of his autobiographical stories, "Helder" is a "straightforward observational memoir" of his experiences with a difficult neighbour, a "dark story" involving "scenes of domestic abuse and violence
."
in 1984, and Brown was living in a rooming house
with shared kitchen and washrooms. One of the other tenants is Helder who is living there with his finacée, Anne. Helder gives Brown a cold welcome when he moves in, but soon comes to Brown's room to introduce himself and Anneand to ask to borrow money. A week later, Anne returns the money and requests that the tenants not lend Helder any more.
Helder has a reputation for violence, and a few months later gets into a violent argument with Anne, who receives a black eye
. Anne moves out and, since the lease was hers, Helder is also forced to move out, but returns regularly to borrow money from one of the tenants.
Brown meets a new tenant, Donna, who he wants to ask out. He waits too long, however, and she ends up going out with someone elseHelder. Later, Helder gets into yet another violent confrontation, breaking down Donna's door and smashing a window. Donna soon moves out, but Helder continues frequently to stop by to borrow money until someone calls the police, knowing Helder happens to be carrying a lot of illegal drugs. Helder is never seen at the rooming house again.
The story of how "Helder" came to be made. Brown's character worries about the artistic decisions he has made, consulting with friends Kris (his ex-girlfriend), Mark Askwith
and Seth
, but getting conflicting advice. He changed some of the panels of "Helder" (mainly of Brown's character breaking the fourth wall
by talking to the readers) on the advice of Askwith and Kris. Two of the original panels were reproduced in the notes to the collection The Little Man
.
According to critic Bart Beaty, the story has an "aura of 'truth'", as "the anecdotal nature of the story lends an air of authenticity for readers who might well wonder why someone would bother to fabricate a story that is so slight." However, Brown runs into trouble with his depictions of people. In particular, his friend Kris objects to the way she is depicted and has Brown change her dialogue.
In this story, Brown "uses no panel borders at all – but still maintains the grid’s left to right zig zag reading"immediately after this issue Brown would abandon the grid entirely. Originally, Brown had penciled in the panels with borders and backgrounds, but when it came time to ink the artwork, he decided to ink only what he considered essential, dropping the borders and much of the background detail, later saying he had "become dissatisfied with [his] drawing style for awhile and wanted it to be freer -- more spontaneous."
In the end, Brown ran into the problem of telling his story using people he knew:
Brown decided to base his next story on his adolescence, as, aside from relatives, he had lost touch with those he had known as a teenager.
Brown's experiences as an adolescent obsessed with the Playmates in Playboy
magazine, while wracked with guilt over his obsessive masturbation
, and his difficulty relating to women as an adult.
Originally, this story and I Never Liked You
were planned to be one book, but as Brown "began to plan it out, it just seemed too complex." Originally titled Disgust, it came to be known as The Playboy Stories, then was finally collected as The Playboy.
Inspired by Peter Bagge
's "Dickie Bird" strip from Weirdo #10, "which was a perfect simulation of the type of juvenile drawings so many of us did while trapped in dull classrooms."
A "true story"a retelling of a story that Brown would tell to a friend when he was in elementary school
. Brown's character is caught playing with his penis
by his teacher, who grabs him by the penis and tries to cut it off with scissors, stretching it in the process. The story progressively gets bigger and more ridiculous, with the police chasing after Brown, who escapes by spinning his stretched penis like a helicopter
's blades, while urinating on the police at the same time. Brown then shoots his principal and drives away in a police car. Towards the end, the scene cuts to Brown continuing to build up his story to his friend, Russell. He's cut off by his mother, however, as he gets home, who asks Russel to leave, telling Brown, "I just...don't want anyone here right now." The story closes with a page of the young Brown urinating in the toilet at home.
A short story of Brown waking up, urinating, picking his nose, getting dressed and being confronted at his room door by a talkative, black neighbour, "Danny". In the end, Brown tries to close the door, but "Danny" forces his hand inside, which Brown then bites. Danny yells at Brown, "White man never have respect for black man!" and eventually leaves, as Brown ponders breakfast.
The real "Danny" had asked Brown to include him in a Yummy Fur story. Brown did, but never showed it to him. Brown says he was seen flipping through a copy of Yummy Fur #25, but believes "Danny" didn't recognize himself in the story.
Once again telling a tale of Brown's adolescence. Brown has trouble relating with the opposite sex, even when they are the ones trying to connect with him.
Originally titled Fuck, the story was retitled I Never Liked You when collected.
)
Brown's first time tackling autobiography since he finished Fuck/I Never Liked You.
After breaking up with his girlfriend, Sook-Yin Lee
, Brown gives up on "possessive monogamy" and makes the case for taking up the life of a "john", detailing each of the 23 prostitutes he has visited to date and his debates with friends over the issue. Includes a 50-page, 23-part appendix elaborating the case for decriminalization of prostitution.
and an eight-panel grid in Paying For It
.
The drawing style became much simpler than it had been in Ed the Happy Clown
. Brown "just didn't like [his] drawing", and so made an attempt to rebuild his style into something he would like better. He says he was looking at "cartoonists who drew in a simpler way" at the time, such as in the Little Lulu Library
reprints from Another Rainbow Publishing
that had recently started being published, and his friend and fellow Toronto
cartoonist
, Seth, who drew in a simpler, New Yorker-inspired way.
Brown had great admiration for Robert Crumb
's and Harvey Pekar
's autobiographical work, but initially was afraid of being accused of "being a Pekar ripoff." Ultimately he was inspired to try his hand at it by Joe Matt
's and Julie Doucet
's recent forays in autobio.
Paying For It
appeared only in book form, but the rest of Brown's autobiographical stories appeared in issues of Brown's ongoing comic book, Yummy Fur, between January 1990 and April 1993.
Most of the stories were significantly reformatted when published in book form, particularly the two graphic novels, The Playboy and I Never Liked You. Both books saw the panels arranged more sparsely on the pages, sometimes having only a single, small panel on a page. While no new content was added, the page counts of both books increased significantly as a result.
"Showing Helder" was also significantly rearranged when it was reprinted in the Little Man collection, and some of the panels were completely redrawn.
People of Canada
Canadians are the people who are identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be genetic, residential, legal, historical, cultural or ethnic...
cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
Chester Brown
Chester Brown
Chester William David Brown , is an award-winning, best-selling Canadian alternative cartoonist and, since 2008, the Libertarian Party of Canada's candidate for the riding of Trinity-Spadina in Toronto, Canada....
attracted a lot of attention from critics and his peers in the early 1990s alternative comics
Alternative comics
Alternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
world when he began writing autobiographical comics
Autobiographical comics
Autobiographical comics are autobiography in the form of comic books or comic strips. The form first became popular in the underground comics movement and has since become more widespread...
in his comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series Yummy Fur.
From this period, Brown produced a number of short stories, as well as two graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
s, The Playboy
The Playboy: A Comic Book
The Playboy is an autobiographical graphic novel by Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, dealing with the author's obsession with Playboy Playmates, his desire to keep his collection hidden, and how it affected his ability to relate to women into adulthood....
and I Never Liked You
I Never Liked You
I Never Liked You is an autobiographical graphic novel by Chester Brown, dealing with Brown's introversion and difficulty talking to others, especially members of the opposite sex....
(originally called Disgust and Fuck in the pages of Yummy Fur). The stories were much more personal and revealing than what Brown had attempted until then, and were drawn in a much more organic style with more organic page layouts, sometimes with a single small panel on a page.
In 2011, Brown returned to autobiographical when he published Paying For It
Paying For It
Paying for It, "a comic strip memoir about being a john", is a 2011 bestselling graphic novel by award-winning Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, released by Drawn and Quarterly....
, an account of his experience with prostitutes.
The Yummy Fur autobiographical stories have all been collectedthe short stories in The Little Man
The Little Man (comics)
The Little Man: Short Strips 1980-1995 is a collection of short works by award-winning Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, published by Drawn and Quarterly in 1998...
(1998, ISBN 978-1896597133), and the graphic novels The Playboy (1992, ISBN 978-0969670117) and Fuck as I Never Liked You (1994 ISBN 9780969670162; revised 2002, ISBN 978-1896597140). Paying For It (2011, ISBN 978-1770460485) has appeared only in book form.
Background
After bringing Ed to an end, Brown moved on to a series of personally revealing autobiographicalAutobiographical comics
Autobiographical comics are autobiography in the form of comic books or comic strips. The form first became popular in the underground comics movement and has since become more widespread...
stories, starting with "Helder" in Yummy Fur #19. The drawing style, done with a brush, became more and more sparse in an attempt to move away from the style of Ed the Happy Clown, which Brown had grown uncomfortable with. Most of the shorter stories, like "Helder", "Showing Helder" and "Danny's Story", took place not long before they were written, but the longer graphic novels took place mostly in Brown's adolescence in the 1970s.
Brown drew inspiration from Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
and Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...
's autobiographical stories, but he says the biggest push he had at the time was from Seth, his friend and fellow Vortex Comics
Vortex Comics
Vortex Comics was a Canadian independent comic book publisher that operated during the years 1982 to 1994. Under the supervision of president, publisher, and editor Bill Marks, Vortex was known for such titles as Dean Motter's Mister X, Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss, and Chester Brown's Yummy Fur...
cartoonist; Joe Matt
Joe Matt
Joe Matt is an American cartoonist. He started drawing comics in 1987 and is best known for his autobiographical work, Peepshow. In addition to his cartooning career, he is known for his large collection of vintage Gasoline Alley comic strips. Matt lived in Canada from 1988 to 2002...
, whose one-page autobiographical cartoons Brown and Seth discovered in 1989, and who eventually moved to Toronto and became friends with the two; and Julie Doucet
Julie Doucet
Julie Doucet is a Canadian former underground cartoonist and artist, best known for her autobiographical works such as Dirty Plotte and My New York Diary...
, whose comics were not explicitly autobiographical, but starred the cartoonist herself and contained autobiographical elements. All four cartoonists would shortly join Drawn and Quarterly
Drawn and Quarterly
Drawn and Quarterly is a Canadian comic book publishing company, headed by Chris Oliveros, and based in Montreal, Quebec. Its focus is on graphic novels and underground or alternative comics. Drawn and Quarterly was also the title of the company's flagship quarterly anthology during the 1990s...
and become associated with one another to the public.
Some of Brown's autobiographical early stories dealt with himself as an adult, but he quickly ran into problems with friends who disagreed with his depiction of them. He then turned to his teenage years and produced some of his most highly acclaimed work. He says he found "the intense emotions of the period [of adolescence], as you’re figuring out sex and love and everything" to be "bound to produce rich material for stories."
Helder
(originally appeared in Yummy Fur #19; appears in The Little Man, pages 47-67)The first of his autobiographical stories, "Helder" is a "straightforward observational memoir" of his experiences with a difficult neighbour, a "dark story" involving "scenes of domestic abuse and violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
."
Story
The story takes place in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
in 1984, and Brown was living in a rooming house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
with shared kitchen and washrooms. One of the other tenants is Helder who is living there with his finacée, Anne. Helder gives Brown a cold welcome when he moves in, but soon comes to Brown's room to introduce himself and Anneand to ask to borrow money. A week later, Anne returns the money and requests that the tenants not lend Helder any more.
Helder has a reputation for violence, and a few months later gets into a violent argument with Anne, who receives a black eye
Black eye
A black eye , or or 'shiner', is bruising around the eye commonly due to an injury to the face rather than eye injury. The name is given due to the color of bruising. The so-called black eye is caused by bleeding beneath the skin and around the eye...
. Anne moves out and, since the lease was hers, Helder is also forced to move out, but returns regularly to borrow money from one of the tenants.
Brown meets a new tenant, Donna, who he wants to ask out. He waits too long, however, and she ends up going out with someone elseHelder. Later, Helder gets into yet another violent confrontation, breaking down Donna's door and smashing a window. Donna soon moves out, but Helder continues frequently to stop by to borrow money until someone calls the police, knowing Helder happens to be carrying a lot of illegal drugs. Helder is never seen at the rooming house again.
Showing Helder
(originally appeared in Yummy Fur #20; appears in The Little Man, pages 68-101)The story of how "Helder" came to be made. Brown's character worries about the artistic decisions he has made, consulting with friends Kris (his ex-girlfriend), Mark Askwith
Mark Askwith
Mark Askwith is a Canadian producer, writer, interviewer , and a familiar name in the fields of science fiction and comics.-Early life:...
and Seth
Seth (cartoonist)
Seth is the pen name of Gregory Gallant , a Canadian comic book artist and writer. He is best known for comics such as Palookaville.Born in Clinton, Ontario, Seth attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto...
, but getting conflicting advice. He changed some of the panels of "Helder" (mainly of Brown's character breaking the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
by talking to the readers) on the advice of Askwith and Kris. Two of the original panels were reproduced in the notes to the collection The Little Man
The Little Man (comics)
The Little Man: Short Strips 1980-1995 is a collection of short works by award-winning Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, published by Drawn and Quarterly in 1998...
.
According to critic Bart Beaty, the story has an "aura of 'truth'", as "the anecdotal nature of the story lends an air of authenticity for readers who might well wonder why someone would bother to fabricate a story that is so slight." However, Brown runs into trouble with his depictions of people. In particular, his friend Kris objects to the way she is depicted and has Brown change her dialogue.
In this story, Brown "uses no panel borders at all – but still maintains the grid’s left to right zig zag reading"immediately after this issue Brown would abandon the grid entirely. Originally, Brown had penciled in the panels with borders and backgrounds, but when it came time to ink the artwork, he decided to ink only what he considered essential, dropping the borders and much of the background detail, later saying he had "become dissatisfied with [his] drawing style for awhile and wanted it to be freer -- more spontaneous."
In the end, Brown ran into the problem of telling his story using people he knew:
Brown decided to base his next story on his adolescence, as, aside from relatives, he had lost touch with those he had known as a teenager.
Disgust/The Playboy Stories (aka The Playboy)
(originally appeared in Yummy Fur #21-23)Brown's experiences as an adolescent obsessed with the Playmates in Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
magazine, while wracked with guilt over his obsessive masturbation
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
, and his difficulty relating to women as an adult.
Originally, this story and I Never Liked You
I Never Liked You
I Never Liked You is an autobiographical graphic novel by Chester Brown, dealing with Brown's introversion and difficulty talking to others, especially members of the opposite sex....
were planned to be one book, but as Brown "began to plan it out, it just seemed too complex." Originally titled Disgust, it came to be known as The Playboy Stories, then was finally collected as The Playboy.
The Little Man
(originally appeared in Yummy Fur #24; appears in The Little Man, pages 102-120)Inspired by Peter Bagge
Peter Bagge
Peter Bagge is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of Buddy Bradley, Hate, Neat Stuff, Martini Baton, and Sweatshop, Apocalypse Nerd and Other Lives. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth...
's "Dickie Bird" strip from Weirdo #10, "which was a perfect simulation of the type of juvenile drawings so many of us did while trapped in dull classrooms."
A "true story"a retelling of a story that Brown would tell to a friend when he was in elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
. Brown's character is caught playing with his penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
by his teacher, who grabs him by the penis and tries to cut it off with scissors, stretching it in the process. The story progressively gets bigger and more ridiculous, with the police chasing after Brown, who escapes by spinning his stretched penis like a helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
's blades, while urinating on the police at the same time. Brown then shoots his principal and drives away in a police car. Towards the end, the scene cuts to Brown continuing to build up his story to his friend, Russell. He's cut off by his mother, however, as he gets home, who asks Russel to leave, telling Brown, "I just...don't want anyone here right now." The story closes with a page of the young Brown urinating in the toilet at home.
Danny's Story
(originally appeared in Yummy Fur #25; appears in The Little Man, pages 128-141)A short story of Brown waking up, urinating, picking his nose, getting dressed and being confronted at his room door by a talkative, black neighbour, "Danny". In the end, Brown tries to close the door, but "Danny" forces his hand inside, which Brown then bites. Danny yells at Brown, "White man never have respect for black man!" and eventually leaves, as Brown ponders breakfast.
The real "Danny" had asked Brown to include him in a Yummy Fur story. Brown did, but never showed it to him. Brown says he was seen flipping through a copy of Yummy Fur #25, but believes "Danny" didn't recognize himself in the story.
Fuck (aka I Never Liked You)
(originally appeared in Yummy Fur #26-30)Once again telling a tale of Brown's adolescence. Brown has trouble relating with the opposite sex, even when they are the ones trying to connect with him.
Originally titled Fuck, the story was retitled I Never Liked You when collected.
Paying For It
(original graphic novelGraphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
)
Brown's first time tackling autobiography since he finished Fuck/I Never Liked You.
After breaking up with his girlfriend, Sook-Yin Lee
Sook-Yin Lee
Sook-Yin Lee is a Canadian musician, filmmaker, actress and media personality.-Background:Lee grew up in a Vancouver suburb, the second-oldest daughter of immigrants. She was raised as a devout Roman Catholic. Her father was a post-World War II orphan from Hong Kong, her mother an escapee from...
, Brown gives up on "possessive monogamy" and makes the case for taking up the life of a "john", detailing each of the 23 prostitutes he has visited to date and his debates with friends over the issue. Includes a 50-page, 23-part appendix elaborating the case for decriminalization of prostitution.
Style
During this period, Brown "abandons the fixed 6 panel grid" that he had used up until that point, "and replaces it with a more organic collaged sequencing using panels of a more varied shape." He would later move back to a grid system, using a six-panel grid in Louis RielLouis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography
Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography is a highly acclaimed comic book biography of the Métis rebel leader, Louis Riel, by Chester Brown and published by Drawn and Quarterly...
and an eight-panel grid in Paying For It
Paying For It
Paying for It, "a comic strip memoir about being a john", is a 2011 bestselling graphic novel by award-winning Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, released by Drawn and Quarterly....
.
The drawing style became much simpler than it had been in Ed the Happy Clown
Ed the Happy Clown
Ed the Happy Clown is the title character of an award-winning and influential comic book story by the Canadian cartoonist, Chester Brown. It is dark and surreal, and largely improvised, having started from a series of unrelated short comic stories that Brown soon went on to tie together...
. Brown "just didn't like [his] drawing", and so made an attempt to rebuild his style into something he would like better. He says he was looking at "cartoonists who drew in a simpler way" at the time, such as in the Little Lulu Library
Little Lulu Library
The Little Lulu Library was an 18 volume deluxe hardcover series of books reprinting a long run of Little Lulu comics from the period when John Stanley was writing the stories. Most of the stories collected were drawn by either Stanley or Irving Tripp...
reprints from Another Rainbow Publishing
Another Rainbow Publishing
Another Rainbow Publishing is a company dedicated to the re-publication and greater recognition of the work of Carl Barks that was created in 1981 by Bruce Hamilton and Russ Cochran. Its name references Barks's saying that there would be "always another rainbow" for his character Scrooge McDuck,...
that had recently started being published, and his friend and fellow Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
, Seth, who drew in a simpler, New Yorker-inspired way.
Brown had great admiration for Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
's and Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...
's autobiographical work, but initially was afraid of being accused of "being a Pekar ripoff." Ultimately he was inspired to try his hand at it by Joe Matt
Joe Matt
Joe Matt is an American cartoonist. He started drawing comics in 1987 and is best known for his autobiographical work, Peepshow. In addition to his cartooning career, he is known for his large collection of vintage Gasoline Alley comic strips. Matt lived in Canada from 1988 to 2002...
's and Julie Doucet
Julie Doucet
Julie Doucet is a Canadian former underground cartoonist and artist, best known for her autobiographical works such as Dirty Plotte and My New York Diary...
's recent forays in autobio.
Original appearances
| Original appearances in Yummy Fur | |||
| # | Date | Story | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | January 1990 | "Helder" | Vortex Comics Vortex Comics Vortex Comics was a Canadian independent comic book publisher that operated during the years 1982 to 1994. Under the supervision of president, publisher, and editor Bill Marks, Vortex was known for such titles as Dean Motter's Mister X, Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss, and Chester Brown's Yummy Fur... |
| 20 | April 1990 | "Showing Helder" | |
| 21 | June 1990 | Disgust/ The Playboy Stories (The Playboy The Playboy: A Comic Book The Playboy is an autobiographical graphic novel by Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, dealing with the author's obsession with Playboy Playmates, his desire to keep his collection hidden, and how it affected his ability to relate to women into adulthood.... ) |
|
| 22 | September 1990 | ||
| 23 | December 1990 | ||
| 24 | April 1991 | "Danny's Story" | |
| 25 | July 1991 | "The Little Man" | Drawn and Quarterly Drawn and Quarterly Drawn and Quarterly is a Canadian comic book publishing company, headed by Chris Oliveros, and based in Montreal, Quebec. Its focus is on graphic novels and underground or alternative comics. Drawn and Quarterly was also the title of the company's flagship quarterly anthology during the 1990s... |
| 26 | October 1991 | Fuck (I Never Liked You I Never Liked You I Never Liked You is an autobiographical graphic novel by Chester Brown, dealing with Brown's introversion and difficulty talking to others, especially members of the opposite sex.... ) |
|
| 27 | January 1992 | ||
| 28 | May 1992 | ||
| 29 | August 1992 | ||
| 30 | April 1993 | ||
Paying For It
Paying For It
Paying for It, "a comic strip memoir about being a john", is a 2011 bestselling graphic novel by award-winning Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, released by Drawn and Quarterly....
appeared only in book form, but the rest of Brown's autobiographical stories appeared in issues of Brown's ongoing comic book, Yummy Fur, between January 1990 and April 1993.
Most of the stories were significantly reformatted when published in book form, particularly the two graphic novels, The Playboy and I Never Liked You. Both books saw the panels arranged more sparsely on the pages, sometimes having only a single, small panel on a page. While no new content was added, the page counts of both books increased significantly as a result.
"Showing Helder" was also significantly rearranged when it was reprinted in the Little Man collection, and some of the panels were completely redrawn.
Book collections
| Year | Title | Publisher | ISBN | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | The Playboy: A Comic Book The Playboy: A Comic Book The Playboy is an autobiographical graphic novel by Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, dealing with the author's obsession with Playboy Playmates, his desire to keep his collection hidden, and how it affected his ability to relate to women into adulthood.... |
Drawn and Quarterly Drawn and Quarterly Drawn and Quarterly is a Canadian comic book publishing company, headed by Chris Oliveros, and based in Montreal, Quebec. Its focus is on graphic novels and underground or alternative comics. Drawn and Quarterly was also the title of the company's flagship quarterly anthology during the 1990s... |
reformatted collection of Disgust/the Playboy stories from Yummy Fur #21-23 | |
| 1994 | I Never Liked You I Never Liked You I Never Liked You is an autobiographical graphic novel by Chester Brown, dealing with Brown's introversion and difficulty talking to others, especially members of the opposite sex.... |
reformatted collection of Fuck from Yummy Fur #26-30 | ||
| 1998 | The Little Man: Short Strips 1980-1995 The Little Man (comics) The Little Man: Short Strips 1980-1995 is a collection of short works by award-winning Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, published by Drawn and Quarterly in 1998... |
includes Helder, , and | ||
| 2002 | I Never Liked You: The New Definitive Edition I Never Liked You I Never Liked You is an autobiographical graphic novel by Chester Brown, dealing with Brown's introversion and difficulty talking to others, especially members of the opposite sex.... |
black page backgrounds changed to white, panels slightly rearranged | ||
| 2011 | Paying For It Paying For It Paying for It, "a comic strip memoir about being a john", is a 2011 bestselling graphic novel by award-winning Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, released by Drawn and Quarterly.... |
never serialized; introduction by Robert Crumb Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded... |
Reception
His autobiographical comics are among Brown's most highly thought-of works, and ranked #38 on the Comics Journal's list of the 100 best comics of the century.External links
- Chester Brown's catalogue page at Drawn and QuarterlyDrawn and QuarterlyDrawn and Quarterly is a Canadian comic book publishing company, headed by Chris Oliveros, and based in Montreal, Quebec. Its focus is on graphic novels and underground or alternative comics. Drawn and Quarterly was also the title of the company's flagship quarterly anthology during the 1990s...
's website - I Never Liked You preview at Drawn and QuarterlyDrawn and QuarterlyDrawn and Quarterly is a Canadian comic book publishing company, headed by Chris Oliveros, and based in Montreal, Quebec. Its focus is on graphic novels and underground or alternative comics. Drawn and Quarterly was also the title of the company's flagship quarterly anthology during the 1990s...
's website - The Playboy preview at Drawn and QuarterlyDrawn and QuarterlyDrawn and Quarterly is a Canadian comic book publishing company, headed by Chris Oliveros, and based in Montreal, Quebec. Its focus is on graphic novels and underground or alternative comics. Drawn and Quarterly was also the title of the company's flagship quarterly anthology during the 1990s...
's website - Where the magic happened, a photographic visit to Chateaugay, Quebec, with Chester Brown