Underwater

(Drawn and Quarterly, 1994)
™ and © Drawn and Quarterly

Chester Brown is of that rare breed of artisan whose brand of story telling follows neither trend nor convention. With an eccentric style of layout that makes full use of negative space; with rendered ink lines simple, clean and deliberate; with dialogue that is funny or thought-provoking, a Chester Brown book usually tends to stimulate a reader far over at the cerebral end of the broad entertainment band than in the more common places one gets after reading a typical super-duper rock-em sock-em good versus evil story.

Such books that make one think as well as feel entertained offer special rewards because their messages are usually wide open to interpretation—meaning no two readers of the same book will walk away with the same experience. This can be easily said about this particular title. So, to describe what it’s all about would be difficult, and perhaps pointless. Read this series and draw your own conclusions. For those who insist on having something to go on, well, we’ll take a stab at it by simply saying that Chester Brown presents a clever way for a reader to see life from another person’s shoes.

Well-read comic connoisseurs ought to be familiar with Brown’s previous and equally enigmatic series, Yummy Fur.

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