Customer Reviews

The Little Man: Short Strips, 1980-1995

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Chester Brown is one of the greatest comics artist ever and in this book you'll see why. This book collects various stories from Brown's acclaimed comic Yummy Fur and some stories done for now defunct anthology titles, including some of his earliest works. The stories range from sci-fi to horror to religous to autobiographical. Almost all of the stories are superb. But the real value of the book is in the way it shows Chester Brown's growth and development into a master of his artform.

Chester Brown is an eclectic, yet diverse innovator. Upon first glance his drawings & artwork look crude & unfamilar, but upon further inspection one becomes engrossed in his unusual storytelling. His stories range from the bizarre and surreal as in his Yummy Fur stories, to the autobiographical, which deals with the growing pains of adolescence to even Biblical and historical, yet they take on a mixture of emotions from endearing, to humorous, to heartbreak and shocking. Chester is a true originator.

He never fails to confound, delight, shock, nauseate, charm and confound again with his way of somehow keeping one gnarled claw rooted in the sacred and the other hoof equally grounded in the scatological. Now if only he'd reprint ED THE HAPPY CLOWN, but with its complete final Yummy Fur disgressions into the inner workings of the First Family. Anyway, "The Little Man" is priceless.

This is the early work of Chester Brown. Angry and full of humour. It is only when the biographical begins to be explored, do the stories really take off.

However, the binding is terrible. Cheap glue which does not survive a single reading (and I read carefully). The book literally falls apart during the reading of it. Be warned.

"The Little Man" is one of many strips contained within this excellent collection. "Helder" is the story of an unruly tenant in a shared house Brown is living in and he memorably depicts Helder as a scary, tragic figure. "Showing Helder" is Brown showing the strip "Helder" to his girlfriend and fellow artist Seth and their reactions. Both strips are better than you'd think given these brief descriptions.

"Danny's Story" is another angry, stupid and dislikable tenant who bothers Brown in the morning with strange and banal stories about his previous night's escapades. Besides these and "My Mom was a Schizophrenic", there's a lot of humour in the material. "The Little Man" is an adventure involving Brown's penis while "The Weird Canadian Artist" mocks artistic dignity juxtaposing peoples' reactions to art and the reality of the artist. There are lots of other smaller strips varying from a page to 3 or 4 but those mentioned above are the best of the bunch.

This is my favourite of Brown's work. It shows his range as a storyteller while the reader sees the development of his art from the early 80s to the mid 90s. His drawing style is eye catching, impeccable and beautiful, unlike any other comics artist around. I highly recommend his other books "I Never Liked You" and "Louis Riel", but this is a fantastic book too.

Chester Brown is one of the greatest comics artist ever and in this book you'll see why. This book collects various stories from Brown's acclaimed comic Yummy Fur and some stories done for now defunct anthology titles, including some of his earliest works. The stories range from sci-fi to horror to religous to autobiographical. Almost all of the stories are superb. But the real value of the book is in the way it shows Chester Brown's growth and development into a master of his artform.

I just have to counter all these gushing reviews. These would be lame in a college newspaper. You ever watch a bunch of student short films? Then you've read this collection of comics.