Funny Misshapen Body: A Memoir [Paperback]

Jeffrey Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 2009

Funny Misshapen Body is the story of Jeffrey Brown's evolution as a cartoonist, from his youthful obsession with superhero comics to his disillusionment with fine art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Drawn with Brown's scratchy, spare, trademark style, Funny Misshapen Body resonates with true-to-life observations on love, fear, and ambition. Through his bare bones graphic style, he reveals his most embarrassing personal moments in raw, intimate detail -- including how he survived high school, binge drinking, mild drug experimentation, doomed friendships, and being diagnosed with Crohn's disease.

Ultimately coming to terms with his art and identity, Brown describes the ups and downs of his adolescence with understated simplicity, dark humor, and charm.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Previous books by Brown (Clumsy; Little Things) have explored his romantic life and eventual progression to a steady relationship and fatherhood in his trademarked slice-of-life style, leavened with awkward, self-deprecating humor. His latest explains how he began making comics, with each chapter focusing on a topic or event leading up to Brown's early comics, with many of the episodes overlapping and out of order chronologically. As Brown explains in the epilogue, I try to arrange stories to express the idea of figuring things out, leading to some meandering at times. Painful college art critiques, health problems (Crohn's disease), forays into substance abuse and a stint working in a wooden-shoe factory make up the bulk of the events, but Brown doesn't stay long enough on any one topic to get tiresome. The art is simple and crude at times, but has a comic strip's direct appeal—Brown's facial expressions are exaggerated, but make him likable. While some may find this extended trip to one cartoonist's past egotistical, Brown is still an engaging companion on the journey. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

In the latest installment of his graphic autobiography, Brown focuses on his lifelong desire to become an artist, depicting the road that led him to his successful comics career: his discovery of comics as a youngster drawn to superheroes; his rediscovery of them when exposed to alternative comix in high school (“These are like . . . real stories”); his rudimentary high-school art instruction; his college job painting windmills and tulips on wooden shoes; the discouragement and disillusionment he experienced in art school; and his breakthrough discovery that he could make art “that wasn’t so caught up in ‘fine art’ ideas” by drawing and self-publishing autobiographical stories. Altogether, it’s of a piece with Brown’s prior efforts. His scratchy drawing style, slightly more assured after eight books, retains its casual charm, as does his myopic view of his rather mundane life. Obsession with his troubled love life has finally been set aside, although his account of his artistic progress is sometimes nearly as embarrassing as those of his forlorn attempts to establish romantic relationships. --Gordon Flagg

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (April 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416549471
• ISBN-13: 978-1416549475
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #461,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After growing up in Michigan, a 25-year-old Jeffrey Brown moved to Chicago in 2000 to pursue an MFA at the School of the Art Institute. By the time he completed his studies, he had abandoned painting and started drawing comics seriously. His first self-published book, Clumsy, appeared seemingly out of nowhere to grab attention from both cartoonists and comics fans. Established as an overly sensitive chronicler of bittersweet adolescent romance and nonsense superhero parody, Brown's current direction remains split between more autobiography examining the minutiae of everyday life and whatever humorous fiction he feels in the mood for. His most popular works include Clumsy, Unlikely, AEIOU, and Every Girl is the End of the World For Me, comprising the so-called "Girlfriend Trilogy" and its epilogue. More recently his autobiographical work has included Little Things and Funny Misshapen Body. His parody The Incredible Change-Bots, the Ignatz Award winning I am going to be small and humorous cat book Cat Getting Out Of A Bag all stand out amongst his humor work, while his Sulk series continues to take on a variety of subjects with satire. Jeffrey's work has appeared in a host of anthologies from McSweeney's to The Best American Comics, as well as mainstream books like The Simpson's Treehouse of Horror and Marvel's Strange Tales. His original artwork has been exhibited in New York, Paris, and Chicago. Brown has been featured on NPR's This American Life and even created a short animated music video for the band Death Cab For Cutie. He lives in Chicago with his wife and son.
Visit jeffreybrowncomics.blogspot.com for news and drawings, and you can write to him at: PO Box 120, Deerfield IL 60015-0120, USA

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comics do seem the place for origin stories, July 16, 2009

By 

Chris Schweizer "History Buff" (Atlanta, GA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Funny Misshapen Body: A Memoir (Paperback)

I've not read much of Jeffrey Brown's autobio work - I'm a big fan of his humor books (Bighead, Miniature Sulk, I Am Going To Be Small, Incredible Change-Bots), but as a rule I often avoid the indie/autobio comic genre unless specific titles are recommended to me.

This one was recommended, and it's not difficult to see why. It's always interesting to me to see how cartoonists found themselves on the path to making comics, and this book does that with an excellent narrative flow, taking many seemingly disparate vignettes from Brown's life and weaving them together to make a clear, emotionally impacting story.

There's a reason that Brown is so highly regarded in the indie comics scene, and this book clearly displays it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a fascinating, non-linear look into how an artist develops, April 21, 2009

By 

C. O. Aptowicz (NYC, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Funny Misshapen Body: A Memoir (Paperback)

I've been a sucker for Jeffrey Brown since my partner gave me copies of his books, "Clumsy" and "Unlikely," which were autobiographical collections of comic strips recording two lusty, doomed relationships. I immediately became smitten with the intimacy and honesty Brown showed, and have been following him ever since.

With "Funny Misshapen Body," Brown focuses his attention on yet another love of his love: art. Like his previous books, Brown embraces the D.I.Y./zine aesthetic, with line drawings that are disarmingly simplistic and storylines that seem (at first) randomly chosen. But the more the reader invests into the book, the more we see how seemingly random events -- positive attention, leveling criticism, books handled to Brown at the right moment -- all lead Brown to the path he is on right now.

What I liked most about this book are not the triumphs, but the stumbles. We see Brown experiment and flouder, drinking and smoking his way through his education, embracing and abandoning projects. Brown shows every awkward inch of his uneven journey, and even a bit of regret about some of his other passions (painting, poetry, etc...) which fell to the wayside when his vision of doing his own comics became clearer.

Like James Kochalka's "Cute Manifesto," Brown's "Funny Misshapen Body" is a fascinating look into the creative mind of an comics artist, alive and working today. Not to mention, it's another solid addition to any Jeffrey Brown collection.

5.0 out of 5 stars The most underrated graphic novelest around, January 22, 2011

By 

JFinkelstein - See all my reviews

This review is from: Funny Misshapen Body (Kindle Edition)

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Clumsy from a friend anout two years ago. It immersed me into his world and i found so much of it to be relatable. I laughed, cried, cheered along, and read it over and over again. Buy this book. While it is not my favorite of his books it is a great read and a great introduction to the most modest and genius writer out there.