Chester Brown keynote design lecture

It was a small group that gathered to hear Chester Brown's keynote lecture at Artcity. Brown, one of Canada's premier cartoonists, is best known for Louis Riel, his thoroughly researched biography on the cult hero, and his series of shorter, autobiographical strips.

Anyone expecting insight into modern cartooning practices or commentary on his creations (The Little Man, I Never Liked You) was sorely disappointed. Brown, a nebbish figure, bald with big glasses, a pocket protector and pens, took the stage and quickly launched into what would be a long presentation, alternately infuriatingly short on the aforementioned details and painfully long and didactic when it came to describing his commercial work.

Brown either struggled to reveal details, or gave critical aspects to his work short shrift. He devoted an inordinate amount of time to a series of "zombie romance strips" commissioned to promote Toronto arts. The strips were rote and derivative, given some life by his deadpan delivery during the reading. He squeamishly emphasized his commercial work, taking care to point out that he took on many of the assignments because they "paid a lot."

Some curious points were raised during the Q&A, notably when pressed to describe his upcoming graphic novel. Like his earlier The Playboy, the as-yet-untitled work is also fixated on sexuality, again of the awkward, shameful variety. He briefly outlined a work that will detail his experiences with various prostitutes during his life. Originally, the project was to detail the sexual encounters with all of the women he has slept with; wisely, most of them declined.

I'll reserve judgment two years from now, when the book appears. However, it seems like an obvious choice of subject matter, and an unsatisfying one, after the mastery of Louis Riel. It's a strange predilection many male cartoonists (fellow Canadian Joe Matt being one of the egregious offenders) have with detailing their sex lives in great minutiae, rife with shame, copious masturbation, self-loathing and a little hint of misogyny. Another text littered with used cum-rags? Yuck and no thanks.