The Little Man: Short Strips, 1980–1995

Brilliant!

"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.