There must be something about the suburbs of Montreal that makes a fertile breeding ground for introspective, obsessive, gentle hearted graphic novelists. Two of my favourite comic strip men live in Montreal – Seth and Chester Brown. Chester Brown is sadly not as well known as he should be, and although it’s somewhat exciting to look like a geek in a comic book store, I want more people to know about him. His work is exquisitely drawn and disarmingly honest – whenever I look at the lean lines of his quiet suburban streets my heart aches with the memory of the late afternoon sun soaking the pavements of my own childhood.
I Never Liked You is a memoir of Chester’s early high school years. It’s my favourite Chester Brown book and one of my all time favourite graphic novels. Moments of life are captured here in all their awkwardness and difficulty. Chester longs to tell Skye he loves her, while Carrie, the little sister who lives across the road pines for Chester. Chester’s mum is struggling to cope (she is schizophrenic, and the details of her illness are drawn in another book, My Mother was a Schizophrenic) and little brother Gordon tries to keep the peace. All the emotion is expressed in the drawing style and the layouts. There is plenty of space between the panels, and quite often there is only one panel on a page. Each panel is a simple black and white line drawing.
In one of my favourite sequences, Chester and the girl across the street Connie go to the movies together. When they arrive, some boys from Chester’s school are there and they yell out, ‘Hey Chester, who’s the girl?’ In a heartbreaking moment Chester decides to sit behind Connie so the other boys don’t think he is with her. They sit through the movie in tandem. A panel shows the light streaming through the projection windows, drawn with gentle lines that flow to the corner of the panel. Another shows the projectionist through the little windows, taking out the last reel. Chester and Connie walk home together in silence. ‘It wasn’t even scary.’ Connie remarks. At home they part ways in a single little frame set in the middle of the page. The drawings present each moment without judgement or reflection, the events simply unfold.
I love Chester Brown because he takes tiny moments of his life and turns them into something more. It’s all the tiny flickers of loneliness, hesitation and bewilderment rendered in a few infintely tender lines.
