Comics / Comic Reviews / More Comics

Louis Riel #6

By Leroy Douresseau
December 13, 2003 - 09:17

D&Q recently published a book collection of Chester Brown's LOUIS RIEL, his nine-issue autobiography of the controversial Canadian historical figure, Louis Riel. I am, however, only halfway through reading the pamphlet version, and when I say "pamphlet," I don't say it in the pejorative sense that the word has taken on in comic book circles.

Perhaps, readers have become so cynical about the kind of single-issue comics they've been getting from mainstream publisher's for well over a decade that they might have taken the monthly comic for granted. As some know, single-issue comics were once produced with care that went beyond computer colors, effects, and lettering. A comic book was a magazine containing multiple stories, a letters page, occasional commentary from the editor, etc. Now, comics are pretty much only a cover, ads, and 22 pages or so of story content.

Brown's Riel is only 24-pages long with a cardstock cover, and it barely measures 6 x 9. Each individual issue is, however, a fine example of quality over quantity. The cover is printed on lovely cardstock paper in an eye-pleasing earth tone, and the newsprint interior pages show a delicate merger with the black and white art.

Brown is the complete cartoonist - writing, drawing, and lettering his comic right down to the notes. Like Daniel Clowes' EIGHTBALL #22 or practically any issue of Chris Ware's ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY, Louis Riel #6 is more than just an installment in a longer story. It is an art object, as good as a trade collection and certainly as nice as a signed, limited-edition book.

Brown is one of the few comic book cartoonists who deserve to be called "idiosyncratic," and his lovely pamphlets show that.

Last Updated: January 17, 2025 - 08:20