Chester Brown: Conversations

by Dominick Grace (Editor), Eric Hoffman (Editor)

Overview

The early 1980s saw a revolution in mainstream comics--in subject matter, artistic integrity, and creators' rights--as new methods of publishing and distribution broadened the possibilities. Among those artists utilizing these new methods, Chester Brown (b. 1960) quickly developed a cult following due to the undeniable quality and originality of his Yummy Fur (1983-1994). Chester Brown: Conversations collects interviews covering all facets of the cartoonist's long career and includes several pieces from now-defunct periodicals and fanzines. Brown was among a new generation of artists whose work dealt with decidedly nonmainstream subjects. By the 1980s comics were, to quote a by-now well-worn phrase, "not just for kids anymore," and subsequent censorious attacks by parents concerned about the more salacious material being published by the major publishers--subjects that routinely included adult language, realistic violence, drug use, and sexual content--began to roil the industry. Yummy Fur came of age during this storm and its often-offensive content, including dismembered, talking penises, led to controversy and censorship. With Brown's highly unconventional adaptations of the Gospels, and such comics memoirs as The Playboy (1991/1992) and I Never Liked You (1991-1994), Brown gradually moved away from the surrealistic, humororiented strips toward autobiographical material far more restrained and elegiac in tone than his earlier strips. This work was followed by Louis Riel (1999-2003), Brown's critically acclaimed comic book biography of the controversial nineteenth-century Canadian revolutionary, and Paying for It (2011), his best-selling memoir on the life of a john.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496802521
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	01/21/2015
Series:	Conversations with Comic Artists Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dominick Grace, London, Ontario, Canada, is an associate professor of English at Brescia University College. He is also the coeditor (with Eric Hoffman) of Dave Sim: Conversations (University Press of Mississippi).

Eric Hoffman, Vernon, Connecticut, is the editor of Cerebus the Barbarian Messiah: Essays on the Epic Graphic Satire of Dave Sim and Gerhard. He is also the coeditor (with Dominick Grace) of Dave Sim: Conversations (University Press of Mississippi).

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Chronology xxxii

Chester Brown Andrew Moreton Jane Schofield Martin Hand / 1988 3

The Chester Brown Interview Scott Grammel / 1990 24

Chester Brown Jay Torres / 1991 73

Shades of Brown Steve Solomos / 1994 86

Two-Handed Man Interviews Cartoonist Chester Brown Darrell Epp / 2002 118

Chester Brown Restrains Himself Heidi MacDonald / 2004 148

On the Real: An Interview with Chester Brown Matthias Wivel / 2004 156

Chester Brown Nicolas Verstappen / 2004 168

Chester Brown: Louis Riel's Comic-Strip Biographer Nancy Tousley / 2004 176

Chester Brown Dave Sim / 2005 182

Chester Brown Robin McConnell / 2006 194

Chester Brown on Prostitution, Romantic Love, and Being a John Nicholas Köhler / 2011 210

Laying It Bare: An Interview with Chester Brown Ian McGillis / 2011 215

Interview: Chester Brown Noel Murray / 2011 219

The Pickup Artist: An Interview with Chester Brown Dave Gilson / 2011 228

Chester Brown on Sex, Love, and Paying for It Paul McLaughlin / 2011 235

Selected Critical Works 239

Index 241