I'm inviting you this week to take a look at various artifacts from Jeffrey Brown's portfolio (below). Also, I've asked you to begin reading Funny, Misshapen Body, up to page 64 for Thursday's class. Once you have read these texts, kindly leave a 200-word post (below, the "Comment" button/box) telling us HOW you consider his work.
In your explanation/description of how you respond to and think about his art style and storytelling, begin to use the discourse of comics, language you've learned from Scott McCloud.
*If you find yourself drawn to his art style and/or his stories, you may want to take a look at his other graphic memoir, and who knows, he may be an artist whose work you focus on for your seminar paper. Pay attention to this question with each new author we read: "What about this work is interesting enough to form a burning question to write about for my seminar paper?"
A brief review (and good photos) of Jeffrey Brown's cover and insert art for the Bristol (UK) musician Mewgatz. http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/september/jeffrey-brown-mewgatz
An illuminating interview with Jeffrey Brown about Funny Misshapen Body and his later books (2009). http://www.newsarama.com/2731-jeffrey-brown-reflections-on-a-funny-misshapen-body.html
In the Book Notes series that follows, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published books. In his own words, here is Jeffrey Brown's Book Notes essay for his graphic novel, Funny Misshapen Body:
"Music probably gets less mention than usual in Funny Misshapen Body, at least as far as my books usually go. This book is about high school, college and art school, and the process of becoming an artist, finding that place where everything clicks. I guess my interest in music over the times being written about in the book paralleled that narrative - I didn't end up where I expected to, but I'm happy where I am now. Here's a few bands and songs that would be my soundtrack for those times."
Jeffrey Brown is indeed an author unlike any other I have encountered. I love how organized his panels are, the easiness to read, while the contents were chaotic and, as we mentioned in class, very rough due to being first draft sketches. While the chapters stay uniform to the title, going from chapter to chapter is not as easy. I guess the best way to figure this is considering the title pages as panels where the gutters represent a larger time gap, hence the chapter panels’ larger size.
ReplyDeleteFrom reading these few chapters alone, I am sensing some sort of “pattern”. He begins right away talking about how awkward it is growing up, the odd and “misshapen” self. He briefly talks about his love for comics, but the central focus is himself and his relationships. The panels in this phase cover his childhood to adulthood, which is quite a jump considering the length of the chapter.
The next chapter seems to focus more on the comics portion that he started with in the introductory chapter. This leads into the third chapter where he acknowledges that even his art, much like himself, is a little misshapen. Therefore, he wants to go back to the time when comics were ‘fun’ and less prestigious.
I find his work unique, and his way of storytelling refreshing. As mentioned earlier, his use of six panels per page makes for a light and easy read. However, like most writers, he is not afraid to break his own rules once in a while to add to reader interaction. On page 62, he elongates one of the panels to represent an increase in time (as mentioned in the Scoot McCloud book), thus giving only five panels on that page. His reasons for doing so were to represent how long the elevator ride felt to him, and the awkwardness, just as that panel felt awkward after pages of six panels.
Overall, this is a pleasant read, and I enjoy his honesty and humor.
Thank you, Danielle, for getting us started with such a thoughtful response. I especially applaud your use of comics discourse! Gutter! Panels! Representations of time passing! I'm glad you're enjoying the memoir so far; I thought it would be a good one to begin with, as he's trying to figure out what to do after college, and...well...
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying the Jeffrey Brown read so far, and also really enjoy the simplicity of the drawing in the panels. I know in class there seemed to be a break between people who agreed with McCloud's idea that sparse vs. realistic might have a lot to do with the degree to which a person identifies with the character. I think I am the reader who does happen to read like that. I find the simplicity of the art more inviting than I think I might find otherwise.
ReplyDeleteIn the introduction of the book, the panels read from right to left over the span of two pages, which is how I noticed my eyes want to naturally travel and I was comfortable with this trajectory. However, I noticed that once Brown got into the story in the next chapter he resumed the same pattern of left to right contained on one page that McCloud did as well. I was wondering why Brown did this. I don't know if McCloud touched on this in his book, but I just got my book in the mail today so I can take a closer look in the future.
What I noticed about the other characters in this book is that they seemed to be more distinct or detailed than Brown's character he was using to represent himself. I thought this might go back to the idea of the reader being able to place themselves as the main character of the book and identity.
So far I have enjoyed Jeffrey Brown’s Funny Misshapen Body. Through the use of pictures one can gain unique, powerful, insights into Brown’s life. While the words on the page tell the story, Brown utilizes his artistic abilities in order to strengthen the connection between his message and the reader. Brown’s message has many emotional factors involved. The use of pictures expands the vocabulary of the comic and enhances the readers understanding of Brown’s feelings in a way that words may not be able to express. Instead of reading and having to imagine reactions of Brown’s characters a reader can see how the characters react by examining Brown’s artwork. Also, the simplified cartoon face seems to have impacted my perception of the main character. I’m not sure if I saw myself in the character, but there was a connection to the character that I experienced that does not usually occur in most books that I read.
ReplyDeleteOne aspect of comics that I really noticed was how the images bleed off the page. On most of the panels complete images are not expressed on the page and a reader has to complete the image in their mind. I’m not sure why I noticed this so much but I did.
I have seen Jeffrey Brown’s work many places, but never knew who the artist was. I’m glad I now have a name to put with the art, and I must say I am hooked. So hooked that I actually read the entire book in one sitting. His simple art comforts me as a person who is fearful of producing visual art. The honesty in his story telling is invigorating and a complete breath of fresh air. Brown’s work seems to encapsulate the same feelings of “existence” as I often try to create in my own poetry.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most interesting aspects of this work is the lack of chronology. These stories are random excerpts that are just scattered. There are some things said earlier that he mentions as the book progresses and there is overlap, but each one is separate. I find this to be relaxing actually. Because while time is linear, experiences are not, and as multi-tasking human beings we can go through more than one thing and be thinking more than one thing at once. Breaking each focus down to its separate existence is an amazing approach. I am looking forward to finding more of his work and digging in on my own!
I love that his style is black and white and scraggly. I am able to place myself within his comic because I am able to make the world my own. I find the memoir interesting so far, and I really enjoy the narrations. Typically, I’m not a fan of narrations and find them rather annoying. In this case I liked them, but I cannot quite put my finger on why. I love that his artistic style is a first draft and scraggly, but that each panel on the page is placed neatly and symmetrically.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the Death Cab video mainly because of the black and white style. Usually when listening to music you find ways in which you can relate the song to your life, and I think that paired with Brown’s style perfectly allows the viewer to see themselves in the song just a little more than usual. With the Mewgatz cover and insert, I like the artwork but it just doesn’t speak to me the same way his black and white style does.
As far as having created a soundtrack for Funny Misshapen Body, how awesome is that! I think it’s really cool to have a soundtrack mapped out for a certain time in your life.
I’ve enjoyed reading Jeffrey Brown so far. I like how open and honest he is about his experiences. I was only able to get my hands on the first fifteen pages (thank you Amazon book preview) but I feel like I already know so much about him. I can see his insecurities and fears. As well as awkwardness I think he still has but now embraces and makes his own. I absolutely love the humor so far and his art style. Thinking back to McCloud, I see myself in this comic. Not being the most popular, being paranoid of your relation to others in your world. Brown often skips through times using captions for his panels that then support the actions of the characters in that panel. This strategy also has the story jump around to other similar points in his life; for example when Brown is explaining he has always been a fat kid or how he had a bad diet holding him back.
ReplyDeleteJust like when I read Scott McCloud, I again find myself going straight to the texts bubbles and then looking back at the pictures. I found myself getting so caught up in the story that I sometimes forgot to look. However, I don’t think I would appreciate Brown’s book as much as I do without the comic aspect. You wouldn’t get all the humor and sensory details without seeing the facial expressions and thought bubbles. I feel as though Brown’s memoir can only be true and real in this form because so much of the book is so focus on the physical and what better way to display the physical than through pictures.
HEY EVERYONE. THIS IS FROM SAM (who was having trouble uploading...)
ReplyDeleteSo far I am enjoying reading Funny Misshapen Body. Jeffrey Brown definitely has a distinct artistic style. His free-hand panel borders cause my anal-retentive tendencies to kick into over drive but his casual style suggests broad accessibility to multiple audiences. Brown doesn't seem to favor a particular transition type but seems to use a variety of transitions (moment-to-moment, action-to-action, scene-to-scene most commonly). I feel like the monochrome style can be a little mundane sometimes, but it's probably cheaper to print in black in white than in color.
As far as writing style goes, I appreciate his bits of humor even though some of the subjects are not really funny. Brown seems like a good story-teller but I'm not sure I like the sectioning of the overall book. I understand that the sections are a way for him to justify the snap-shot sequence of his memoir seeing as he can't address everything, but I wasn't expecting a graphic memoir to be sectioned, so I think the initial reaction to this style had me a little turned-off to it. I'm hoping that as I read further into the memoir the sectioning will make sense and that it will grow on me.
After reading Jeffrey Brown’s memoir Funny Misshapen Body, I must say that I was surprised how quickly I was hooked into the book. I ended up reading the book in two sittings. I appreciate Brown’s unique simplistic style. I believe this makes the book more relatable to the audience. Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics tells us that we see ourselves in cartoon and we psychologically inhabit an empty shell and become the cartoon. Brown’s basic drawings make it easy for the reader to see themselves in the protagonist, which therefore allows the audience to relate directly to the story. I noticed this theory come into effect as I was reading.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I noticed about Funny Misshapen Body was that the paneling was also set up simplistically. The majority of the book features six black and white square panels per page, while some pages feature four square panels with one longer rectangular panel to empathize significance. I found that this style allowed the story to read more smoothly. I could easily read from panel to panel without any confusion. I also found that the black and white style felt balanced with the text bubbles. When I read comics I often go straight for the text first, but when reading this memoir I felt that I was instead able to read the text while absorbing the image simultaneously. Overall, I enjoyed reading this memoir and I plan on reading more of Jeffrey Brown’s work in the future.
For the most part, I really enjoyed Funny Misshapen Body. Since my last experience reading a graphic novel was 17 years ago, this felt like the first time. While I enjoyed what the images added to the narrative, I must admit I wasn’t always aware of how or why they had an impact on my reading. The few examples that I remember giving me pause, were the moments when there was a sudden shift in perspective, such as on page 61, where the second panel grants us access to Jeffrey’s line of vision. For the most part, Brown maintains the same perspective throughout, and when he does suddenly shift, it very much caught my attention (as intended I’m sure). In McCloud’s chapter “Show and Tell” he references a style of art “rich in invisible treasures, senses, emotions, spirituality, philosophy . . .” (145). I don’t find Brown’s artwork to be especially rich in this way, but when he does abruptly shift perspective, panel size, or the way in which he combines words and images, the artwork does achieve something the words alone could never. As McCloud puts it in his final chapter, we humans suffer from an inability to communicate directly from mind to mind” (194), I enjoyed the experience of feeling closer to that sort of connection with the author/creator. I felt it was much more honest and humble than most memoirs I have read. All that being said . . . the ending dragged hahaha . . . I was ready for it to be over. Maybe his whole “I’ll finish when I run out of space” thing doesn’t work that well for me.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that strikes me as most compelling about Brown’s work is its episodic nature. Unlike most stories, which are entirely chronological, Brown’s work is structured in a way that offers “snapshots” of his life. For instance, early in the book, Brown discusses his experience with girls and women, traveling from high school to college. He does the same when discussing his love for comic books. Instead of telling his life story the way it actually occurred – I was born, I went to school, I became a graphic novelist – he organizes his life into compartments and relays his story through those multiple lenses.
ReplyDeleteThe form of Brown’s text is unlike any other graphic novel I have seen. The novels I have been exposed to are all much more formal in their presentation of images, while Brown’s is obviously unrefined. While I understand that this is Brown’s regular medium, I think it works especially well in conjunction with the content of his narrative. Like all life stories, Brown’s is not refined or perfect. I think his drawing style works especially well because of the tone he adopts throughout the novel – namely, a humorous and relatively lighthearted approach to his own life.
As someone who is very visually- and artistically-oriented, I am instantly drawn to the artwork when I read a graphic novel. Ordinarily, I like to scrutinize each panel, looking for suggestive details, moments that complement the text and add to it. Jeff Brown`s drawings, however, are not trying to hide anythigng. They are unassuming, sometimes crude. They communicate, but not in a particularly complicated way. At first I was a little annoyed. Why would someone who obviously has so much background in art deliberately choose such a simplistic, almost childlike, style? But as I read, it grew on me, and particularly after reading the analysis paper on his other works, I realized that was part of the book`s charm. It is not pretentious. Like the paper`s author wrote, it is innocent. But more than this, I feel it is honest. There is nothing "hidden" in these drawings and Brown strives not to hide any of his life, his embarrassments and flaws included, from his readers.
ReplyDeleteI can't lie. My first thoughts on Jeffery Brown's art were not particularly kind. I found overtly crude, yet also detailed in weird ways. The stubble on his face still kind of annoys me. It occupies a very particular place on Scott McCloud's Realism-Meaning pyramid. Probably somewhere in the 40's-50's.
ReplyDeleteBut as I began to read further, I slowly came to understand and accept his chosen style. His style is rough because the period of life he's describing was, well...rough. It intermingles with his descriptions and retellings in a way that benefits the story as a whole. A more realistic, cleaner style could likely have worked, but it wouldn't have gotten his (occasionally) harrowing story across in the same way he would have wanted. So I forgive you Mr. Brown. I guess all those stubble dots have a purpose after all.
Though I’ve read allot of comics, Jeffery Brown writes the types of comics I do not generally read. He seems to mostly write graphic memoirs (Funny Misshapen Body) and gag comics (Vader’s Little Princess). His art is also different. Due to the smallness of the pages, the panels (and therefore the art) is smaller. Something I notice in his work is something I notice in many graphic memoirs. His art style is less realistic and more iconic than most superhero comics. Which is odd because superhero is a genre one thinks of as being more “iconic”. That is being something that the reader is supposed to put himself into. However most superhero comics allow their heroes to be iconic in another way: the masks. One thing that is quite peculiar about FMB is the low amount of action-action transitions. While this could be explained as it being less action orientated than superhero comics (which are a large majority of comics), McCloud said that this tendency reaches to all corners of western comics. Maus (if I recall correctly) had a decent amount of action-action transitions. The other graphic memoir I read though (100 Demons) did, like FMB, have an overall lack of action-action transitions. Jeffery Brown seems to mostly use moment-moment, subject-subject, and scene-scene transitions. Action-action and aspect-aspect are used, but not as much. The rarest of all transitions. The non-sequitur, is not used at all. Though the only time I can think of the non-sequitur being used is in Understanding Comics, the occasional gag comic, and I believe a horrid experimental horror comic I read awhile back called Ashes.
ReplyDelete