Chester Brown

I must admit that it's shocked me a bit that one of my biggest heroes, Chester Brown", is getting into politics and is running for the Libertarian Party in Canada. It always made sense for my other cartoonist hero Peter Bagge to be Libertarian - his grumpy Buddy Bradley character had it in him too. But Chester? Weird shit! And apparently Chester's cartoonist pal Seth has also said that a little bit of him died inside when he heard it. Well, count me in on that one!

Chester Brown's masterpiece probably remains the great Ed the Happy Clown saga, one of the great works of counter cultural surrealism, rivalling key works by Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch. Featuring rats, vampires, religious imagery, excrement, parallel dimensions, castrations, plus a talking penis in the shape of Ronald Reagan's head, "Ed..." remains a stunning work.

The book is out of print, unfortunately. Look for the old one-volume edition on Ebay... or buy the nine issues that were published a few years ago to fill the void while Chester apparently is working on a new definitive edition. I hope it will be out one day. "Ed" is my favourite comic book of all time, surpassing even the mighty "Watchmen".





If you can't find "Ed...", then look out for some of his other books. "The Little Man" is a great compilation of short bits and pieces. "I Never Liked You" and "The Playboy" are his two great autobiographical books about teenage alienation. His historical biographical graphic novel "Louis Riel" is probably not for everyone. It can come off as a bit dry, but as a portrait of madness and dark history I think it's a great companion piece to Alan Moore's "From Hell".

The still available books are very cheap as used copies on Amazon and Ebay.

(These two strips are from "The Little Man")

(This is a page from "Ed the Happy Clown" that was part of an ending that didn't quite work out when originally serialized, so it was not included in the collection)