The Little Man: Short Strips, 1980-1995

I'm a big fan of Chester Brown's and already had the hardcover edition of this book. This softcover edition adds an early black and white strip drawn when he was twelve and a new page on the back cover. There are some extra end notes as well. But if you already have the hardcover version it's not worth it to buy the softcover, you're not missing anything. The stories themselves are a broad range with most from Brown's prime Yummy Fur days. A big negative of this softcover version is that the paper is a yellowish color which detracts from the artwork. A more neutral color would have been easier on my eyes. Minus one star for the yellow pages.But the deal breaker for this softcover edition is that the cover is cheaply glued on with an adhesive that will come off when you start paging through the book. The book production is very poor! I only took two stars off for this but really, if the book is coming apart, that's probably zero stars as I'm going to return this. If you're new to Chester Brown I would suggest starting with either Paying For It or Ed the Happy Clown instead. Hope this review helps somewhat in making your buying decision.

I had not read this before,and I thoroughly enjoyed it.I think I mailed it away as a gift after I read it.Is that re-gifting?

"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.

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.

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.

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.

Brilliant!

Ottima storia e disegni fantastici per un autore decisamente interessante, raccomandato a tutti senza dubbio di delusioni. . . .