Drawing Between the Lines

Another week, another excuse for not updating. This week I had a whole bunch of (paid) work taking up my weekend and Monday so I had to postpone the work I do gratis for you gentle readers. Naturally I would’ve updated today, but I’m going to go and see Neil Gaiman do a talk at the Criterion Theatre in London, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to do a review tonight, either.

In which case, as is traditional, I’ll instead give you some further reading on the subject of Jeffrey Brown.

It has been brought to my attention that there exists a documentary entitled Drawing between the lines. The official site says this:

Drawing Between the Lines is a short documentary examining the autobiographical world of Chicago cartoonist Jeffrey Brown. Whether sitting in his apartment, riding the L-train, or traveling the country promoting his work, Brown spends his time filling the pages of his sketchbooks. His graphic novels provide a humorous, yet intensely personal look at love, sex and relationships. Drawing Between the Lines explores Brown’s candid approach to storytelling and unconventional method of cartooning and provides insight from friends, fans and fellow cartoonists.

There don’t appear to be any screenings scheduled just yet, but keep an eye on their site in case any come to light. It looks fantastic, and while the chances of ever seeing it outside the US seem fairly slim at this point, who knows what the future may bring?

I hope that’s entertaining, anyway. Come back in a few days for a new review!

 

Proof of Life

Despite several weeks of near-clockwork regularity and constant updates, there was bound to come a time when it wouldn’t be possible for me to do an update, and this week is the first of those times. I am, as you read this, most probably in a field in Berkshire either camping in a waterlogged tent, or listening to a bunch of bands playing. In any case, I’m in no condition to be writing about anything, Jeffrey Brown or otherwise.

Still, that’s not to say I’m leaving you out in the cold. I don’t have a review, but here’s some Jeff Brown content I prepared earlier. Visit my Flickr page and see images tagged “Jeffrey Brown” for a look at what kind of mini-sketches Jeff puts into his books when you sign them. These particular books were my own personal copies, signed by him downstairs at Gosh! Comics in London. We had a conversation about his Wolverine parody book and the forthcoming Transformers movie, and he was very polite despite how obviously I struggle with interpersonal skills. I would recommend the experience to a friend.

And, because it greatly amuses me, here’s an embedded copy of the postcard advertising the signing:

See you next week!

 

Not-so feeble attempts

So, if you’ve ended up at this page, you’re probably looking for some information about the work of Jeffrey Brown, award-winning cartoonist and comic creator. If this is so, then you’ve come to the right place. Of course, it could be that you’re genuinely looking for some crudely drawn naked people, in which case…you’ve still come to the right place, I suppose.

Crudely Drawn Naked People is my attempt to introduce Jeffrey Brown to anyone and everyone who’ll listen. This kind of project is a first for me, so you may see some confusion and inconsistencies along the way, but it’s all part of the learning process and hopefully nobody’s going to make an ass out of themselves.

My plan is to go through Jeff’s body of work, reasonably chronologically, and write a little bit about it all. Sometimes you’re going to be getting his own books, sometimes you’ll be getting anthologies he’s in, and more often than not you’re not going to be getting one of the billions of contributions that I haven’t managed to track down, because quite frankly the man is hideously prolific and there are only so many hours in the day. I’ve not decided on a schedule yet, but I’ll be keeping it reasonably regular so unless you’re reading this in the future and I haven’t done so, you can be sure I’ll probably have semi-frequent updates to bring you.

The first update, starting tomorrow, will be Clumsy.