Funny Misshapen Body

February 16, 2009
Previous books by Brown (Clumsy
; Little Things
) have explored his romantic life and eventual progression to a steady relationship and fatherhood in his trademarked slice-of-life style, leavened with awkward, self-deprecating humor. His latest explains how he began making comics, with each chapter focusing on a topic or event leading up to Brown’s early comics, with many of the episodes overlapping and out of order chronologically. As Brown explains in the epilogue, “I try to arrange stories to express the idea of figuring things out,” leading to some meandering at times. Painful college art critiques, health problems (Crohn’s disease), forays into substance abuse and a stint working in a wooden-shoe factory make up the bulk of the events, but Brown doesn’t stay long enough on any one topic to get tiresome. The art is simple and crude at times, but has a comic strip’s direct appeal—Brown’s facial expressions are exaggerated, but make him likable. While some may find this extended trip to one cartoonist’s past egotistical, Brown is still an engaging companion on the journey.

July 15, 2009
Brown is known for sometimes hyper-candid, sometimes funny autobiographical stories drawn in a rather ungainly style mirroring real life's awkwardness. Here he turns to his artistic career: copying comics as a kid, finding a mentor in the manager of his comics shop, going to art school, painting wooden shoes part-time, and trying to figure out what to do with his life. Amid mixed messages about fine arts careers and encouragement from cartoonist Chris Ware, he decides, "I thought I'd draw comics like I did when I was a kid." The story concludes with Brown's joy over his first graphic novel, the self-published "Clumsy". But success hardly comes easy, with roadblocks like illness, recreational substances, and misfired friendships. The compelling Crohn's disease episode will resonate with anyone having a painful and embarrassing body problem. VERDICT This memoir should encourage wannabe comics creatorsif Jeffrey Brown could publish nine titles and make the cover of "The Comics Journal", maybe so could they! With occasional nudity and sexual references, for older teens and up.M.C.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2009
In the latest installment of his graphic autobiography, Brown focuses on his lifelong desire to become an artist, depicting the road that led him to his successful comics career: his discovery of comics as a youngster drawn to superheroes; his rediscovery of them when exposed to alternative comix in high school (These are like . . . real stories); his rudimentary high-school art instruction; his college job painting windmills and tulips on wooden shoes; the discouragement and disillusionment he experienced in art school; and his breakthrough discovery that he could make art that wasnt so caught up in fine art ideas by drawing and self-publishing autobiographical stories. Altogether, its of a piece with Browns prior efforts. His scratchy drawing style, slightly more assured after eight books, retains its casual charm, as does his myopic view of his rather mundane life. Obsession with his troubled love life has finally been set aside, although his account of his artistic progress is sometimes nearly as embarrassing as those of his forlorn attempts to establish romantic relationships.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)