Bighead

by Jeffrey Brown

Jeffrey Brown is back - and with a Bighead, no less! An irreverent and clever super-hero parody, featuring the most amazing hero of all time: Bighead. Witness inept villains clash with an all-too-emotional hero, in the epic graphic novel that will leap all cliches in a single bound.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Humor, Superheroes, The United States Of America, Comic Book

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 2004

About the author

Jeffrey Brown was born in 1975 in Grand Rapids, Michigan and grew up reading comic books with dreams of someday drawing them, only to abandon them and focus on becoming a 'fine artist.' While earning his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Brown abandoned painting and began drawing comics with his first autobiographical book 'Clumsy' in 2001. Since then he's drawn a dozen books for publishers including TopShelf, Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, McSweeney's and Chronicle Books. Simon & Schuster published his latest graphic memoir 'Funny Misshapen Body.' In addition to directing an animated video for the band Death Cab For Cutie, Brown has had his work featured on NPR's 'This American Life' His art has been shown at galleries in New York, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles and Paris. Jeffrey's work has also appeared in the Best American Comics series and received the Ignatz Award in 2003 for 'Outstanding Minicomic.'
He currently lives in Chicago with his wife Jennifer and their son Oscar.

Reviews

[Jake Kilroy]

It's drawn like a bored art major college student had some time to kill between classes and got hired by the school paper. It's that casually drawn and it has that sense of humor. But it's really fun. The punchlines are delivered in perfect deadpan and absurdity, which is hard to do on a page. Jeffrey Brown was going for something and I think he nailed it. Who cares if it's just for fun? Why does something always have to have its ass pounded with themes and story arcs? Why can't this thing just exist to make you smile a bit?

[Peacegal]

Like the artist’s other non-cat-related work, I had some mixed feelings about Bighead. First of all, the parody superhero Bighead looks more like a Big Something Else to me (probably the point). Many of the stories are clever, such as when Bighead faces down all-too-human enemies such as a villain who’s just depressed over a breakup with his girlfriend, or when Bighead is at a loss to prevent the girl he secretly loves from marrying “The Brit.”

However, the illustration quality was wildly inconsistent. Some of the strips look like the author drew them while drunk: collapsing, haphazardly drawn frames stagger across the page, while the lettering is at times illegible because it looks like it was done in Sharpie marker.

[Matt Mazenauer]

This is almost white ninja, except in longer form.

[Matt Graupman]

Jeffrey Brown has had an interesting career. He shot to (relative, in the comics world, at least) stardom with his raw, emotive autobio work in “Clumsy,” “Unlikely,” etc. but now he’s mostly known for his work on all-ages comics, including a high profile gig in the Star Wars universe. In that light, his Bighead comics represent a sort of transitional period in his career. A loving homage to the frankly ridiculous concept of superheroes, this collection of the titular character’s mini-comics and assorted other stories demonstrated that Brown was able to tackle more mainstream work with his wry sense of humor and subversive wit intact.

Boasting an ill-defined set of superpowers and a high emotional intelligence, Bighead could very easily be mislabeled as a beta-male poseur. I mean, more often than not, he uses his sensitivity and psychology to defeat inane villains like Girlhair, The Brit, Temptationress, and other baddies that sound like rejects from James Kochalka’s similarly loony “Superfuckers” series. Brown expertly sends up the whole ass-whupping-macho-superhero trope, revealing - but also reveling in - the silliness of a big dude in his underwear punching other dudes in their underwear. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and Brown proves once again that his creativity is nearly limitless. Art-wise, “Bighead” represents the end of his more amateurish drawing style; looking like the free, impromptu no-pencils-just-straight-to-ink work he used in his early autobio memoirs, its sloppy charm works perfectly with the ragged nature of the adventures. His work is much more polished now, as well as his storytelling, and I miss the rawness of his work like “Bighead.”

For a sensitive comic artist who freely aspired to work for Marvel, Jeffrey Brown’s “Bighead” perfectly straddles both worlds. With a penchant for using his brains and his ears more often than his fists, Bighead has a heart as big as his head. This collection is a treat for superhero- and indie-comics fans alike.

[Shannon]

Mildly amusing at times, but mostly just silly and weird without being overly interesting.
Bunch of short stories that generally follow the same pattern; "Ah ha, I'm the bad guy and I'm going to do something bad!".
"I'm Bighead and I will stop you with whatever power is needed to counter your powers".
"Curses, I am undone".

Several of the stories felt incomplete.
The handwritten text was hard to read in places.
I really expected better from this book.

[Rex Hurst]

A lot of people dislike this book and Jeffrey Brown's style, which seems almost amateurish when first viewing it. I felt the same, but after reading more and more of his material I found myself enjoying this book and other of his tales more and more. The style of art lends itself to the story material. This parody is not as blunt as something like "The Boys" or even "The Tick". But is a subtle fun jab at superheroes, showing them in a ridiculous light. The villains are ridiculous and fun.

[Greg]

I was pleasantly surprised by this. I like some of Brown’s work more than others and I figured the fictional nature here would be on the lower end of my taste but I like what he’s doing by using his simplistic style to parody superhero comics while engaging in social commentary. Nothing too deep, but an art nonetheless.

[RSC_Collecting]

This was a blast! Bighead is hilarious. This is a collection of various Bighead issues and strips. Giving us a huge look into this goofy character. Bighead is a superhero. A very strange superhero. Though he always seems to get the job done. These are action packed and so funny. I kept catching myself laughing out loud. I only wish I had more Bighead to enjoy. Highly recommend!

[furious]

this was fine, if a bit uneven. frankly I love Jeffrey Brown's autobio comics, and this is just not as good. not as interesting or compelling. a quirky, off-kilter take on superheroes is actually kinda tired at this point. I works probably have enjoyed it more had I read it when it was new.

[Kelly]

Not my thing, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t somebody else’s thing. It had silly humor about a superhero named Bighead. I didn’t like it much.

[Oscar]

I liked the comedic aspects of this book but it was low quality stories.

[Doug]

ah, what was that? one of the strangest but fun...

[Sezer Turgay]

Güzel bir süper kahraman janrasına sitem,parodi.Jeffrey Brown'un stili herkese göre değil ama ben seviyorum.

[Laura Jet]

A cute little book. I really enjoyed the humor (gave me Adventure Time vibes). I enjoyed how weird it is and how each comic managed to have a message with such a limited amount of words/frames and time spent on them.

[Teddy Smith]

Bighead is a sarcastic take on superheroes, and satirizes the very meaning of super-heroism. Bighead being a man who was suddenly struck by a massive amount of cosmic neutrinos, and got the superior ability to sooth anyone with his voice and rationalize any super villain, this was easily one of the funniest graphic novels I have ever read.

I can't muster up the creativity to come up with a complaint for this book, because every mistake that the book contains is openly portrayed, and the creator, Jeffrey Brown, wore them on his sleeve which gave the collection of comic books an add to it's charm.

-Would definitely recommend it.

[Jason]

Just as you are drawn to the scene of a car wreck as you drive by, I felt compelled to finish this book. I've seen some books/movies over the years that are so dumb that they're funny. This isn't one of them. The slapstick animations wore off after about 10 pages and I found myself wanting something more substantial. That being said, I could see young readers really enjoying this.

[E. Chris]

A really fun take on the superhero graphic novel. Brown collects his Bighead stories into one collection to teach us that psychoanalysis can be just as successful as violence when fighting injustice.

[Jamie]

There are some funny moments in the adventures of the less-than-super hero Bighead, but it gets pretty stale after about halfway through the book. This would be humorous to read as a weekly comic strip. In book form, it's repetitive and too predictable.

[C2015]

I like a lot of Jeff's stuff, this was not my thing. That said, there were some clever bits to this. The last pages seemed like a jumble of his odds and ends doodling. If you love super heroes, you'll love this.

[Tim Franzen]

Bighead is my new favorite superhero.

[Christopher]

For fans of Scott Musgrove's comic Fatdog Mendoza. If you get that reference, this book is for you. Really funny stuff.

[Jacob Fink]

Bighead is the lamest hero ever conceptualized. And that's why this shy nerdy big headed shmuck a success.

[nicole p]

This if a fucking good comic book.

[Mike]

Meh. A little too "Too Much Coffee Man". He should stick to the straight autobiography.

[Wes Young]

pretty genius, in a cute,quirky sort of way. a superhero for the average man.

[Sara]

Jeffrey Brown's memoir books are much more suited to his skill set, but I like to see an author experiment. I like Incredible Change-Bots better, but this is still fun.

[Danielle]

meh. He is pretty funny but the artwork seems rushed and sloppy.

[Robin]

Bighead was somewhat amusing, but didn't pull at any heartstrings or make me laugh out loud like Brown's other works.

[Brian]

no boobies..:( I don't know why I keep reading this guy. I think if beavis wrote comics, this is what it would look like.

[J.]

What is this? A spoof of a superhero comic? Except it's not very funny, nor very insightful. So what exactly is it?