The Little Man: Short Strips, 1980-1995

by Chester Brown

"One of the medium's brilliant mavericks." --Time.com

The Little Man: Short Strips, 1980-1995 is a collection of short-story works by the celebrated and bestselling Louis Riel cartoonist Chester Brown. From his early experimental comedic surrealism to his later autobiographical and essay strips, we see not a major talent in development but a fully realized storytelling virtuoso. Included are his early autobiographical stories "Helder" (a story about a young man's tentativeness when pursuing a woman), "Showing Helder" (a blow-by-blow account of the construction of the previous story), and "Danny" (a strangely compelling moment-by-moment account of Brown waking up and trying to avoid contact with a fellow rooming-house tenant). Other standouts are Brown's controversial essay on schizophrenia (specifically his own mother's) and various medical views on this baffling disease, and the title story, "The Little Man," a Freudian classroom romp fantasy by a adolescent Brown that ties into the schizophrenia essay in a surprising way. The acclaimed compendium, culled mostly from his groundbreaking comic book series Yummy Fur, provides a fascinating insight into Brown's psyche; he rounds out the collection with exacting notes on each story.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Short Stories, Fiction, Humor, Comic Strips, Graphic Novels Comics

184 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

About the author

Chester Brown is a Canadian cartoonist.
Brown was born in Montreal in 1960 and grew up in the nearby suburb of Chateauguay.
At 19, Brown moved to Toronto, where he found a day job while practicing cartooning in his free time. In 1983, he began to self-publish his work in photocopied mini-comics under the title Yummy Fur. These pamphlets attracted some attention in the industry, and in 1986 the Toronto-based comic book publisher Vortex Comics approached Brown. The first Vortex issue of Yummy Fur sold well, so Brown quit his day job to become a full-time cartoonist.
In the pages of Yummy Fur, Brown serialized the story Ed the Happy Clown, which was published as a graphic novel in 1989 and went on to win several awards.
Brown's following book The Playboy (1992) was the first graphic novel released by the Canadian comic publisher Drawn & Quarterly. It was followed by I Never Liked You (1994) and the collection of shorts tories The Little Man: Short Strips, 1980-1995 (1998). From 1998 to 2003 Brown worked on Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography. His latest books are Paying for It (2011) and Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus (2016), both tackling at some level the theme of decriminalisation of prostitution.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

"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.

[David A Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luv me some early Chester Brown

[michal k-c · Rating 3 out of 5]

probably only for the real chester brown heads but who knows, maybe it would be a good thing if his Louis Riel book put some people onto some weirder graphic novel stuff. (speaking of which the “my mother was a schizophrenic” strip at the end may contain some of the seeds of Brown’s artistic interest in a figure like Riel)

[Mongeta Verda · Rating 3 out of 5]

té alguna molt divertida, d'altres molt interessants com la de la mare esquizofrènica, però li tinc una mica de mania pel còmic sobre la prostitució

[John Gervasoni · Rating 5 out of 5]

If it were to be judged by the content of the individual shorts, this collection doesn't merit 5 stars. These aren't all amazing strips. However, the whole is much greater than the shorts and in no other way could the growth and style of the author be better expressed. Candid and unfiltered, Chester Brown's voice is warm and private paradoxically by how removed he presents his narrative. This is the best example of growth in the medium.

[Keith Irwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a collection of random short strips written by Chester Brown. They're basically fun, underground comicsy things. Just little tidbits, either silly or serious or somewhere in the middle. There were some bits I liked. Other bits were kind of a slog. I think it's probably a good book to get if you're a Chester Brown fan and want to make sure you aren't missing anything, but I can't say I was all that impressed with it.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

These are just a collection of Chester Brown’s short comic strips from his adulthood. Some of them were great while others weren’t anything special.

I loved Little Man! The rest didn’t stand out to me at all.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good intro to the slice-of-life comics, and although it's racy, it sort of lacks the edge that other comics have. It definitely made me laugh, though, and was overall a very pleasant read.

[Alexander Lisovsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Сборник коротких стрипов Честера Брауна, составляющих его раннее творчество. Не скажу, что мне всё понравилось — некоторые стрипы слишком личные и вообще не понятны, пока автор не объясняет смысл в примечаниях, другие на мой вкус слишком трешево-андеграундные, но есть и довольно забавные. Занятно было видеть, как автор в какой-то момент взялся писать автобиографическую историю (про мудака-соседа) и тут же словно открыл своё настоящее призвание — настолько даже эта самая первая история отличается в лучшую сторону от всего, что было до неё.

Ещё мне очень понравился завершающий стрип "Моя мама — шизофреник", а особенно как всегда обширные комментарии к нему, где автор, ссылаясь на множество книг по теме, довольно познавательно рассказывает о теории, с одной стороны отвергающей психиатрию как науку (т.к. у неё нет объективных научных инструментов и методов, и даже в наши дни постоянно звучит претензия о крайне плохой воспроизводимости результатов любых социо-психологических исследований), а с другой — некоторые профессиональные психиатры показывают, что шизофрения — это как дисбактериоз и вегетососудистая дистония, болезни-жупелы, под которые можно подвести всё что угодно, ведь никаких объективных анализов (крови, МРТ и т.п.) не существует.

И есть подозрение, что лечение шизофреников — это очередное проявление нетерпимости общества к "ненормальным" людям, из долгого ряда печальных примеров, начиная с исправления гомосексуалистов и заканчивая лоботомией и электрошоковой терапией для всех, кто не укладывается в социальные каноны соответствующей эпохи (сразу приходит на память Хемингуэй, которого свели в могилу лечением его паранойи, а двадцать лет спустя вскрыли архивы ФБР и выяснилось, что агенты действительно постоянно за ним следили, проводили дома тайные обыски, ставили жучки в телефон и т.д. и т.п.). При этом основная функция психиатрического лечения — не помочь больному, а взять под контроль его поведение (и подавляющие мозговую активность препараты, от которых куча жутких побочек, как раз хорошо укладываются в эту канву).

Как обычно, прикладываю небольшое превью и на этом, к сожалению, прощаюсь с Честером (пока он вдруг не решит ещё что-нибудь написать).

[Grégoire Maillard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back at it with one of the historical Drawn & Quarterly trio (Joe Matt-Seth-and here, Chester Brown!); The Little Man is quite of a fun piece in Chester Brown’s bibliography I have to admit; it basically compiles everything that the author ever published in small zines before actually publishing more complete graphic novels later in his career; Brown offers us a way back in the memory line with bunch of 1 to 10 pages story in a chronological order, giving us the opportunity to see him develop his drawings/storytelling as well as refining of what will make the Chester Brown that we know; to be honest, most of the stories seems a bit random (although, the context in the notes in the end gives a lot more sense to the stories), but I really enjoy reading some the stories including the one where he has problem with a roommate (which is his first try into doing autobiographical comics), the one about Jesus twin brothers (which again Brown explores in depth a less known side of Christianism-ish), or also « The Little Man » story which is as absurd and funny as Ed the Clown; anyway, I’m really happy I ended up reading this gem!

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il volume lo compri sulla fiducia: è Chester Brown, quello di "Non mi sei mai piaciuto". Poi inizi a leggere la (spassosa) introduzione e l'autore stesso ti dice che non ama particolarmente nessuno dei racconti presentati, che sono tutti lavori acerbi. Poi leggi le prime storie (o schegge di storie) e capisci quanto siano acerbe. Ma, dannazione, c'è qualcosa in ognuna di queste storie: la sua fantasia deviata che ti impedisce di liquidarle velocemente. Un modo di raccontare che ti ricorda Daniel Clowes. Poi c'è Helder e anche (e soprattutto) il Making of di Helder che sono entrambe fantastiche (e qui ci sono Clowes, Tomine e il loro patron letterario Carver). Poi finisci tutto e ti trovi a leggere, divertendoti, note finali che non avresti mai pensato di leggere. Insomma: grande, grande lavoro. Alla faccia di chi (lo stesso Brown) si diverte a demolirlo.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Up-and-down as you'd maybe expect. The best strips here are the autobios which are well-captured and where Brown seems the most excited about what he's doing. The early ones are gross and depraved in the way that Ed the Happy Clown is, but that work is way stronger - placing it into a long-form context makes it feel audacious, sad, and like it even makes some sort of sense, but as individual strips it just comes off as fucked up and not very funny. I was happy to see Brown continuing his tradition of long notes and commentary at the end which at least helps place those strips in historical and personal context.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gústame ler os comezos dos debuxantes, non só as súas obras máis logradas. Neste caso o libro é especialmente interesante porque é unha edición ampliada a respecto da primeira publicación da colección. O libro publicouse por primeira vez en 1998 e a reedición fíxose en 2006. O que se amplía en 2006 son as notas, lugar tan interesante como as viñetas. Ver non só os comezos, senón o contexto que o autor nos dá nas notas foi case que a miña parte favorita. Intérnaste no mundo secreto do debuxante, que comparte contigo as historias que lle dan máis vergoña, as que fixo a correr, ou a primeira pola que lle pagaron (e canto).

[Fritz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was disappointed with Chester Brown's biography of Louis Riel. But I didn't want that to be my last memory of him, so I dug up this collection of his early stories and gave them a read. They're a wild ride - wacky, well-paced, and masterfully drawn, at least the later ones are. Even the earlier stories are worth reading to see how he progressed. A book that starts with a story about a Toilet Paper Revolt? You know it's got to be good. It may not be his definitive work, but it's still pretty good

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only reason I would recommend this to a reader is if you were already familiar with Chester Brown and really want to collect everything he's published. Otherwise, it doesn't really hold up to his other, much better work. The best stuff here is the autobiographical stuff about the author's experiences with friends and neighbors. There are some funny bits in the humor strips, but not a lot that I would like to go back to.

[Elisala · Rating 2 out of 5]

Etrange BD, recueil des presque premières oeuvres de l'auteur. De ce fait ça fait un peu fourre-tout et dans l'ensemble je n'ai pas aimé.
Ce sont de courtes à très courtes histoires, sans queue ni tête, sans grand intérêt, à mon sens.
Parfois, le dessin, l'absurdité apportent un semblant d'intérêt. Parfois, c'est l'histoire qui a suffisamment de consistance. Souvent, malheureusement, je reste dubitative...

[Daniela Cisneiros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um novela gráfica com reflexões autobiográfica ao estilo Brown com caprichos surrealistas, drama e humor. Uma excelente obra com o espírito do cómic underground.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stand out as fun, and the notes make them more interesting. But a lot of it is not.

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crude and primitive until about 1991, but it's totally interesting to see the evolution of a master comic artist.

[Adrian Bloxham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories - good stuff

[Harrison Rip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and interesting but mostly too immature to be worth checking out unless you haven't seen his followups.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lovely (pre-notes) ambiguous gnostic strip, timely reacquaintanceship with gnosticism and anti-psychiatry, and dude draws a cute bunny.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

thin stuff, brown's artwork improves a little before dipping into the start of the style which simply repulses me

[TheManInThePlanet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just adore Chester Brown's art style, but man, that guy has some unnuanced opinions on things. Still a really good cartoonist.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hit or miss as most collections are, but also interesting on another level as a look at the progression of an artist's career.

[Maddy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very different than his other work I read… I was really let down:/

[Nickolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun and clever book by, again, Chester Brown which covers every comic he has done from the time he moved out of home when he was 19 chronologically to 1995 where I’m assuming he was 34. Many of these are more along the lines of Ed the Happy Clown (such as The Little Man which the book is named after), many are autobiographical, and one that I thought was very cool was a comic about his process of making comics. The comic on the back cover has him talking to Aliens and showing them clippings of reviews the book received. So to fluff this review I will add one by someone else “It might seem jarring for a book to begin with ‘The Toilet Paper Revolt’ and end with ‘My Mom was a Schizophrenic’ but Brown pulls it off by mixing equal parts surrealism, violence, and contemplation.” I really liked this book and often laughed out loud on my couch whilst one of my flatmate sneered at me from his room.

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a collection of Chester Brown's short strips from the beginning of his career up until shortly before this collection was published, this is quite a mixed bag of competence, content, length, you name it. Some of the early strips are pretty unsophisticated and stylistically crude, though even the most unaccomplished have some degree of appeal. Brown's development from surreal iconoclast to autobiographist to polemicist tracks across the book. Several strips are brilliant in different ways--chilling (some of the bunny/gerbil strips), or hilarious (the title strip), or penetratingly insightful (many of the autobiographical stories). Excellent stuff.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Otra historieta con tintes autobiográficos que leo de este hombre (al menos parte del tomo lo es) y otra vez me parece que el tipo tiene cero empatía con la gente que lo rodea. Lo iba a puntuar con 2 estrellas por lo mal que me cae el autor/personaje, pero promedio para arriba porque hay varias historietas medio surrealistas que están bastante bien y los extras suman puntos (aunque muchas veces parece que están solamente para justificar las cosas chotas de sus comics), aunque me quedaron un par sin leer, se disfrutan bastante.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the comics themselves don't draw you in, this book is an interesting read for anyone who goes through a creative process. Brown's willing to reveal ides that turned into nothing and strips helped him to move forward in his creative process. And it's almost worth the read just for the notes at the notes at the end, where he details how he came up with certain ideas, what he was reading or how he did further research.