Schmuck Love

I enjoy reading the work of Chester Brown. I was shocked to learn that he's a Libertarian, which disappointed me and placed him fairly low on the intellectual totem. I wish I'd never discovered that about him, but he's so deeply involved in that unfortunate neo-fascist scene that he actually runs for office on the Libertarian ticket in his native Canada.

Since I do have a lot of his work, I was amused at the pathetic quality of this pair of illustrations when placed in conjunction with one another.

The first one he did to illustrate his deep love for his woman, someone named Sook Yin. It was the closing panel of a saccharine bit of drippy love stuff to show how much she meant to him.

This last one is the first page of his graphic novel, PAYING FOR IT, describing his descent into the world of prostitution as a paying john. In this initial page, the love of his life tells him that she wants to fuck someone else.

I wouldn't have laughed, save for the fact that he's a Libertarian. In that case, I could not stop myself from laughing. That said, the book is quite good. The best of the comic artists who work in the realm of autobiography are either very honest (guys like Joe Matt), or open the door enough into their psyche that you can infer enough about them to achieve the same effect as bald-faced honesty. I'd put Chester Brown in that second category. The fact that I was able to place these two illustrations together shows the power of his work. That I recalled that initial image at all says a lot about his skill, and that I think enough of his sequential art to have it in my bookcase after so many years.