Little Man: Short Strips 1980 - 1995

Summary

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.