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Underwater
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1994
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About the author
Chester Brown
127 books277 followersChester Brown is a Canadian cartoonist.
Brown was born in Montreal in 1960 and grew up in the nearby suburb of Chateauguay.
At 19, Brown moved to Toronto, where he found a day job while practicing cartooning in his free time. In 1983, he began to self-publish his work in photocopied mini-comics under the title Yummy Fur. These pamphlets attracted some attention in the industry, and in 1986 the Toronto-based comic book publisher Vortex Comics approached Brown. The first Vortex issue of Yummy Fur sold well, so Brown quit his day job to become a full-time cartoonist.
In the pages of Yummy Fur, Brown serialized the story Ed the Happy Clown, which was published as a graphic novel in 1989 and went on to win several awards.
Brown's following book The Playboy (1992) was the first graphic novel released by the Canadian comic publisher Drawn & Quarterly. It was followed by I Never Liked You (1994) and the collection of shorts tories The Little Man: Short Strips, 1980-1995 (1998). From 1998 to 2003 Brown worked on Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography. His latest books are Paying for It (2011) and Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus (2016), both tackling at some level the theme of decriminalisation of prostitution.
Brown was born in Montreal in 1960 and grew up in the nearby suburb of Chateauguay.
At 19, Brown moved to Toronto, where he found a day job while practicing cartooning in his free time. In 1983, he began to self-publish his work in photocopied mini-comics under the title Yummy Fur. These pamphlets attracted some attention in the industry, and in 1986 the Toronto-based comic book publisher Vortex Comics approached Brown. The first Vortex issue of Yummy Fur sold well, so Brown quit his day job to become a full-time cartoonist.
In the pages of Yummy Fur, Brown serialized the story Ed the Happy Clown, which was published as a graphic novel in 1989 and went on to win several awards.
Brown's following book The Playboy (1992) was the first graphic novel released by the Canadian comic publisher Drawn & Quarterly. It was followed by I Never Liked You (1994) and the collection of shorts tories The Little Man: Short Strips, 1980-1995 (1998). From 1998 to 2003 Brown worked on Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography. His latest books are Paying for It (2011) and Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus (2016), both tackling at some level the theme of decriminalisation of prostitution.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 9, 2021
It's a real shame this was never finished (hence why it doesn't have 5 stars). The main story really captures how horrifying, disorientating and surreal our baby/infant memories are (no wonder we all have PTSD). And the adaptation of Matthew from the Bible has the most fierce, intimidating Jesus ever; complete with a severe receding hairline and sallow, acne-scarred cheeks.
September 14, 2022
Underwater is a comic book series by Chester Brown from the mid-90s. It was cancelled after issue 11 (that's the last one I have atleast).
The story is experienced from the point-of-view of a new-born (and as he ages). The gimmick is that the speech bubbles contain gibberish (as the baby would hear words) and then slowly the speech begins to resemble words that we (the child) understand.
He makes it seem like a child is completely lost and confused in the world. I almost argue differently; a child has an intimate connection with reality that is lost as he ages and adopts the cultural view-point.
It hasn't been collected as a novel, probably because its not very good - and Brown prefers to forget about it.
The end of each issue continues Brown's adaption of the Bible story matthew. I haven't read that book before, so I'm not sure if its a faithful adaption or whatnot. It would be cool if Brown finished that story and collected it though (it would fit snug beside my copy of Crumb's Genesis). Issue 11 adapts Matthew 20:1-20:29. There are 28 chapters in Matthew, so he is pretty close to being done.
The story is experienced from the point-of-view of a new-born (and as he ages). The gimmick is that the speech bubbles contain gibberish (as the baby would hear words) and then slowly the speech begins to resemble words that we (the child) understand.
He makes it seem like a child is completely lost and confused in the world. I almost argue differently; a child has an intimate connection with reality that is lost as he ages and adopts the cultural view-point.
It hasn't been collected as a novel, probably because its not very good - and Brown prefers to forget about it.
The end of each issue continues Brown's adaption of the Bible story matthew. I haven't read that book before, so I'm not sure if its a faithful adaption or whatnot. It would be cool if Brown finished that story and collected it though (it would fit snug beside my copy of Crumb's Genesis). Issue 11 adapts Matthew 20:1-20:29. There are 28 chapters in Matthew, so he is pretty close to being done.
June 7, 2016
Finally to around to reading this aborted series. I hope that Brown continues the story someday. I read this in preparation for our interview with him: http://comicsalternative.com/comics-a....
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews