Feeble Attempts

by Jeffrey Brown

Collection of material which has previously appeared in numerous publications, such as Alarm Magazine, Chicago Reader, You Ain't No Dancer, to name a few.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Short Stories

51 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

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

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The whole wide world knows that Jeffery Brown is capitalizing on his nerd/geek love for Star Wars (and his parenthood) into a cottage industry of comics/cartoons about the series and parenting, such as Darth Vader and Son. And some of them are just fine, I'm glad they are popular. But the Jeffery Brown work I most know and love will also be his diary comics, Clumsy, Every Girl is the End of the world for Me, and others. And some of his mock-superhero comics such as Sulk and Incredible Change Bots.

This is a collection of stuff, including comics about awkward relationships, a pretty startling depiction of his experience of 9/11 (kind of stunned, inarticulate, traumatized). One focuses on "Jesus in My Heart" which actually features just that, literally, Jesus seen from inside a beating heart. One pagers, mostly, thumbnail-style sketches. So, this is largely culled from journals, and I liked this stuff. I got a copy from Comixology the other day for something like 99 cents. Worth at least a buck, I'd say!

[David Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm generally a fan of Jeffrey Brown, and this is a collection of his earliest stuff. I mostly read his autobio drama stuff and this is right in that vein. My fave vignette of the collection is from 9/11 as it happened. The art is veeeery sketchy. Worth a quick read.

[Alarra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple drawings, rather wordy, but some of them were perfect in capturing mundane life and its resonance for the individual. The 9/11 one, a longer piece, is my favourite one - it just manages to convey all the anxiety and then growing disaffectedness that observers acquired because they just didn't know how else to cope with such an event.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't stop thinking about Jesus raging on Jeffrey's heart. I read this whole thing while I was having my hair died and I kept cracking up while the stylist was coloring my hair. Unfortunately, I have a lot of hair, so I finished the book way before my hair was complete.