i never liked you

I Never Liked You

Cover of the New Definitive second edition of

I Never Liked You

Creator Chester Brown

Date 1994

Publisher Drawn andQuarterly

Original publication

Published in Yummy Fur

Issues 26–30

Date ofpublication

October 1991 –April 1993

I Never Liked YouFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I Never Liked You is a graphic novelby Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown.The story first ran between 1991 and1993 under the title Fuck, in issues#26–30 of Brown's comic book YummyFur; published in book form by Drawnand Quarterly in 1994. It deals with theteenage Brown's introversion anddifficulty talking to others, especiallymembers of the opposite sex—includinghis mother, to whom he is unable toexpress affection even as she lies dyingin the hospital. The story has minimaldialogue and is sparsely narrated. Theartwork is amongst the simplest inBrown's body of work—some pagesconsist only of a single small panel.

Brown established his reputation in theearly alternative comics scene of the1980s with the surreal, taboo-breakingEd the Happy Clown. He brought thatstory to an abrupt end in 1989 when,excited by the autobiographical comicsof Joe Matt and Julie Doucet, he turnedtowards personal stories. Theuncomplicated artwork of his friendand fellow Toronto cartoonist Sethinspired him to simplify his own. Brownintended I Never Liked You as part of alonger work with what became hisprevious book, The Playboy (1992), butfound the larger story too complex tohandle at once. I Never Liked You wasthe last work of Brown's earlyautobiographical period.

I Never Liked You was well received, and its influence can be found in the workof cartoonists such as Jeffrey Brown, Ariel Schrag and Anders Nilsen. The bookappeared amid the early 1990s trend in autobiographical alternative comics,and Brown was one of a prominent trio of Toronto-based autobiographicalcartoonists, with Seth and Joe Matt. Brown originally set the panels againstblack page backgrounds, which he replaced with white for an annotated "NewDefinitive Edition" in 2002.

I Never Liked You - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Never_Liked_You

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Contents

1 Background

2 Synopsis

3 Publication

4 Style and analysis

5 Reception and legacy

6 References

6.1 Works cited

6.1.1 Books

6.1.2 Journals and magazines

6.1.3 Web

7 External links

Background

Brown grew up in Châteauguay, a Montreal suburb with a large English-speaking minority;[1] he does not speak French.[2] He described himself as a"nerdy teenager" attracted to comic books from a young age, and sought acareer in superhero comics, but was unsuccessful in finding work with Marvelor DC after graduating from high school.[1] He moved to Toronto anddiscovered underground comix[3] and the small-press community. From 1983[1]

he self-published a minicomic titled Yummy Fur.[4]

From 1986[5] Toronto-based Vortex Comics began publishing Yummy Fur. Aftermaking a name for himself in alternative comics with the surreal serial Ed theHappy Clown, Brown turned to autobiography[6] under the influence of thework of Julie Doucet and Joe Matt. During his autobiographical period, Browngradually simplified his style, inspired by the example of his friend and fellowToronto cartoonist Seth.[7] He began tentatively with a pair of short tales, andgradually became freer with his panel layouts and simpler in his artwork.[8]

Brown had switched publishers to the Montreal-based Drawn and Quarterly bythe time he completed his first autobiographical graphic novel, The Playboy, in1992.[6] At first, he intended The Playboy and I Never Liked You to form onestory, but found it too complex to handle when he started to plan it out.[9] ThePlayboy deals with Brown's guilt over his teenage obsession with masturbatingover pornography. The book gained praise from fans, critics, and othercartoonists, and won a Harvey Award. It received criticism from those who sawit as objectifying women and glorifying pornography; Playboy publisher HughHefner wrote to Brown voicing concern that Brown would feel such guilt in a


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Seth was a fellowToronto cartoonistwhose work inspiredBrown to simplify hisown.

The story takes place inChâteauguay, Quebec.

post-sexual revolution world.[10]

Synopsis

The story is set during Brown's 1970s adolescence inChâteauguay, a suburb of Montreal. Chester—"Chet"for short—is a thin, long-haired teenager who isawkward, introverted, and better able to expresshimself through drawing than speaking. He constantlyand inexplicably turns away girls, even though he isinterested in them and they in him. Except in hisimagination, Chet has difficulty expressing affectioneven for his mother. She talks to Chet and his youngerbrother Gord about issues that embarrass them, andthe religious teaching she has instilled in them hasrendered Chet unable to bring himself to swear, forwhich he is teased and goaded at school.

Chet plays games such as hide-and-seek with theneighbourhood children. One girl, Carrie, has a crushon Chet and invites him to her house each day to wash the dishes. He andCarrie's older sister Connie, a bossy blonde a year his senior, often hide duringhide-and-seek games in tall grass where they spend the time talking with eachother, though they have little in common. Connie asks him to the movies, buthe sits away from her when he spots boys from his school; he fears he will beteased for being on a date. When the film ends, they walk home in silence.

Chet is interested in Sky, a large-breasteddark-haired girl two years younger who livesnext door, about whom he has masturbatoryfantasies. He confesses his love butimmediately regrets it, unable to express hisfeelings. She connects with Chet and tries todevelop a relationship, but he is unable todeal with his emotions and avoids spendingtime with her. He draws her a picture of askeleton symbolizing himself reaching for abird signifying Sky herself. When Carriedeciphers it correctly he denies that he usessymbolism in his drawings, and theconfrontation escalates to minor violencewhen Carrie proclaims to him, "I never liked

you!"

Chet and his brother rarely visit their mother after she checks into hospital,and when they do Chet cannot bring himself to tell her he loves her. She suffersa fall down a flight of stairs there when confusedly wandering around and diesafter being bedridden and incoherent for a short time. Chet makes excuse afterexcuse to turn Sky away when she tries to spend time with him. The story ends

Châteauguay


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with Chet refusing to accompany Sky to the fair because he says he wouldrather listen to his new Kiss album.

Publication

I Never Liked You was originally serialized under the title Fuck, in issues#26–30 of Yummy Fur, between October 1991 and April 1993.[11] Unlike hisearlier works, according to Brown there was "very little improvisation in INever Liked You. It was quite planned out, even if I didn't write a fullscript."[12]

Drawn and Quarterly issued a collected edition in 1994, changing the title fromFuck to I Never Liked You. Brown rearranged the page layouts, removingpanels, most significantly those in the prologue where Chet explains hismotivations.[13] A "New Definitive Edition" appeared in 2002, with two addedpages of contextual endnotes,[6] something he had been increasingly doingfrom 1995 with his cartoon essay "My Mom Was a Schizophrenic".[14] In the1994 collection the backgrounds were black; he changed them to white andrearranged the panels for the "New Definitive Edition". He explained: "I likeausterity. The white background looks more austere to me."[12] The editionincluded a short appendix for readers "wondering when and where thingshappened".[15]

Style and analysis

Academic Charles Hatfield finds "an abiding interest in the ways people areshaped by their environment" in Brown's autobiographical work, and believesthe stories demonstrate "the urgency of Justin Green and the mundaneparticularity of Harvey Pekar", two influential creators known for theirrevealing autobiographical comics. Brown is unsparing in his depictions ofsocial awkwardness of his teenage years.[16] Despite the 1970s adolescentbackdrop, sex and drugs are absent; his life is shaped by his strictly religiousparents[17] and introversion.[18]

Brown's mother (1923–76)[19] suffered from schizophrenia. This is not madeexplicit,[20] but hinted at in scenes where she approaches awkward subjectswith Chet and his brother Gord; the boys' unsupportive responses feed thediscomfort.[18] Brown addresses his mother's mental health in his 1995 cartoonessay "My Mom Was a Schizophrenic", in which he takes an anti-psychiatricstance.[21]

Chet's face is near expressionless throughout.[22] The characters are distancedfrom the reader, inviting neither empathy nor identification.[23] To cartoonistand critic Pepo Pérez, this is a challenge to readers to understand thecharacters.[24] In the appendix to the "New Definitive Edition", Brown declaresthe dialogue is filtered through his memory and likely did not occur asrecorded, and that locations and other details are also subject to lapses of


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Chet is unable to voice hisaffection even to his dyingschizophrenic mother; hislack of expression defies easyreader identification.

memory. To academic Elisabeth El Refaie thistransparency on Brown's part is "a deeper andmore sincere form of authenticity".[15] ReviewerC. Max Magee found the tone of awkwardnessand emotional emptiness comparable to worksby contemporaries such as Daniel Clowes andChris Ware.[25]

The story unfolds in vignettes,[26] with littlesetup or context given to any scene. To Hatfield,they "[pop] out of nowhere as a dreamlike seriesof pulses ... The effect is sometimes eerie ...despite the grounding of the story in mundaneeveryday stuff."[27] Unlike in his previousgraphic novel, The Playboy, Brown makeslimited use of a narrator in I Never Liked You.The story is told almost entirely through itspictures and sparse dialogue.[27] The pagelayouts are also sparse, sometimes limited to asingle, small panel on a page,[28] sometimes upto seven or eight.[29] The layout and repetition of panels affects pacing, slowingor quickening scene.[18]

Brown abandoned the grid layout he had used in earlier works for more varied,organic layouts.[30] Backgrounds establish the mood of a scene, harmonizing orcontrasting with the action—as when Chet and Connie return from the moviesamongst a romantic snow-covered, starry landscape, against an awkwardsilence accentuated by panel that grow, making the figures appear ever moreinsignificant.[18]

The cartooning is far looser than in Brown's earlier work, and concerned morewith gesture and expression than literal detail.[13] They are rendered with abrush, and amongst the simplest and sparsest in his body of work. There isnonetheless a significant amount of hatching,[31] and the backgrounds arenaturalistic, in contrast to the thin, distorted figures.[32] Brown had beenparing his artwork since the Playboy stories, as he was not happy with his styleand sought "to rebuild [his] style in a way that [he] would like". He continuedthis with I Never Liked You, where he has said he was "trying to get even morepared down than The Playboy".[31] Certain inanimate objects receive a focusimbuing them with special significance, such as Chet's habitual after-schoolpackage of soda crackers or the Brown family home—a house that, to reviewerDarcy Sullivan, "is as much a character [in I Never Liked You] as in ThePlayboy".[33]

Brown drew the pictures before laying down the panel borders, which conformto the shapes of the pictures they enclosed and are drawn in a wobblyfree-hand much like in the artwork of the Los Bros Hernandez or RobertCrumb.[34] He drew each panel individually, assembling them into pages


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Brown (pictured in2009) returned to thesubject of his relationswith women in 2011 inthe polemic Paying forIt, arguing for thedecriminalization ofprostitution.

afterwards.[29] In the original serialization and first collected edition, they wereplaced on black backgrounds. He changed to white backgrounds for the 2002edition.[27]

Reception and legacy

Brown's autobiographical work developed from ascene that had been developing since the 1970s andwhich had reached a peak in the late 1980s and early1990s. Brown's open and self-deprecating example leftan impact on cartoonists such as Jeffrey Brown andAriel Schrag, and his sparse layouts on the likes ofAnders Nilsen.[7] Upon the serial's conclusion,reviewer Darcy Sullivan called it "a major stepforward for the artist, a leading light in adultcomics".[13] American cartoonist Gilbert Hernandezhailed The Playboy and I Never Liked You as"probably the best graphic novels next to Maus";[35]

British cartoonist Eddie Campbell called them "themost sensitive comics ever made";[36] and Americancomics writer Heidi MacDonald called I Never LikedYou "a masterpiece" that is "the equal of any 'comingof age' movie".[37]

Charles Hatfield praised Brown's honesty, keenobservation, and narrative strength,[16] and called the"hide with me"[38] page as one of his favourites.[27]

Critic Óscar Palmer (es) described the work as "anexample of sobriety and restraint, and one of the harshest, most hopelessteenage portraits ... in any medium".[24] Scripter and critic TrajanoBermúdez (es) wrote the book demonstrates Brown a master of his medium.[24]

Norwegian cartoonist Jason calls I Never Liked You a favouriteautobiographical work.[39]

Alongside Seth's It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken and Joe Matt's The PoorBastard—works by Brown's Toronto-based friends and Drawn and Quarterlystablemates—I Never Liked You is seen as a prominent example of the 1990sautobiographical comics trend.[24] As one of "The Autobiographical Storiesfrom Yummy Fur", it ranked 38th on The Comics Journal 's list of the top 100English-language comics of the 20th century.[16] In 2001 Stephen Weinerincluded I Never Liked You in his book The 101 Best Graphic Novels,recommending it to those who enjoy J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in theRye.[40]

I Never Liked You was the last work from his autobiographical period thatstarted in 1990 with Helder in Yummy Fur #19. Yummy Fur continued for twomore issues before Drawn and Quarterly publisher Chris Oliveros convinced


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Brown to publish his next serial, Underwater, under its own title in 1994. In2011 Brown returned to autobiography and his relations with women with thegraphic novel Paying for It, a polemic arguing for the decriminalization ofprostitution.[41]

References

Bell 2006, p. 144.1.

Epp 2013, p. 120.2.

Juno 1997, p. 132.3.

Juno 1997, p. 131.4.

Bell 2006, p. 146.5.

Køhlert 2012, p. 378.6.

Køhlert 2012, p. 381.7.

Grace & Hoffman 2013, p. xviii.8.

Juno 1997, p. 140.9.

Grace & Hoffman 2013, p. xx.10.

Lefèvre 2010, p. 313.11.

Verstappen 2007.12.

Sullivan 1994, p. 53.13.

Park 2011.14.

El Refaie 2012, p. 166.15.

Hatfield 1999, p. 67.16.

Bell 2006, p. 158.17.

Sullivan 1994, p. 54.18.

Sim 2003.19.

Hatfield 2008; Williams.20.

Birch 2012, p. 174; Williams.21.

El Refaie 2012, p. 202.22.

El Refaie 2012, p. 197; Serrano 2007.23.

Serrano 2007.24.

Magee 2006.25.

Grace & Hoffman 2013, p. xxi.26.

Hatfield 2008.27.

Lefèvre 2009, p. 161.28.

Køhlert 2012, p. 380.29.

Santoro 2010.30.

Juno 1997, p. 135.31.

Køhlert 2012, pp. 379–380.32.

Sullivan 1994, pp. 54–55.33.

Wolk 2007, p. 153.34.

Bell 2006, p. 156; Gravett; Thompson

2004, p. 84.

35.

Bell 2006, p. 156.36.

MacDonald 2011.37.

Brown 2002, p. 33.38.

Heater 2009.39.

Weiner 2001, p. 7.40.

Grace & Hoffman 2013, pp. xxi, xxv.41.

Works cited

Books

Bell, John (2006). Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic

Book Universe. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 978-1-55002-659-7.

Birch, Michael (2012). "My Mom was a Schizophrenic". Mediating Mental Health:

Contexts, Debates and Analysis (http://books.google.com

/books?id=wctHSTHinsUC&pg=PA174). Ashgate Publishing. pp. 174–185.

ISBN 978-0-7546-7474-0. Retrieved 2012-07-06.

Brown, Chester (2002). I Never Liked You: The New Definitive Edition. Drawn and


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Quarterly. ISBN 978-1896597140.

Epp, Darrell (2013). "Two Handed Man Interviews Cartoonist Chester Brown". In

Grace, Dominick; Hoffman, Eric. Chester Brown: Conversations

(http://books.google.com/books?id=3ZnyAAAAQBAJ). University Press of

Mississippi. pp. 118–147. ISBN 978-1-61703-868-6.

Grace, Dominick; Hoffman, Eric (2013). "Introduction". In Grace, Dominick;

Hoffman, Eric. Chester Brown: Conversations (http://books.google.com

/books?id=3ZnyAAAAQBAJ). University Press of Mississippi. pp. vii–xxxi.

ISBN 978-1-61703-868-6.

Juno, Andrea (1997). "Interview with Chester Brown". Dangerous Drawings. Juno

Books. pp. 130–147. ISBN 0-9651042-8-1.

Køhlert, Frederik Byrn (2012). "I Never Liked You: A Comic-Strip Narrative". In

Beaty, Bart H.; Weiner, Stephen. Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Independent

and Underground Classics. Salem Press. pp. 378–381. ISBN 978-1-58765-950-8.

Lefèvre, Pascal (2009). "The Construction of Space in Comics". In Heer, Jeet;

Worcester, Kent. A Comics Studies Reader (http://books.google.com

/books?id=9LUYhG9qO_8C). University Press of Mississippi. pp. 157–162.

ISBN 978-1-60473-109-5. Retrieved 2012-06-19.

Lefèvre, Pascal (2010). "I Never Liked You". In Booker, M. Keith. Encyclopedia of

Comic Books and Graphic Novels 1. ABC-CLIO. pp. 313–314.

ISBN 978-0-313-35748-0.

El Refaie, Elisabeth (2012). Autobiographical Comics: Life Writing in Pictures

(http://books.google.com/books?id=HkP-_YCiSbEC). University Press of

Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-61703-613-2.

Weiner, Stephen (2001). DeCandido, Keith R. A., ed. The 101 Best Graphic Novels.

NBM. ISBN 978-1-56163-444-6.

Wolk, Douglas (2007). "Chester Brown: The Outsider". Reading Comics: How

Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. Da Capo Press. pp. 147–155.

ISBN 978-0-306-81509-6.

Journals and magazines

Hatfield, Charles (February 1999). Spurgeon, Tom, ed. "No. 38: The

Autobiographical Stories in Yummy Fur". The Comics Journal (Fantagraphics

Books) (210): 67. ISSN 0194-7869 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0194-7869).

Sim, Dave (October 2003). " "Getting Riel", part 1" (http://www.cerebusfangirl.com

/artists/louisriel1.php). Cerebus (Aardvark-Vanaheim) (295). ISSN 0712-7774

(https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0712-7774). Retrieved 2011-01-16.

Sullivan, Darcy (November 1994). "The Four Letter Heart". The Comics Journal

(Fantagraphics Books) (172): 53–55. ISSN 0194-7869 (https://www.worldcat.org


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/issn/0194-7869).

Thompson, Kim (February 2004). "Gilbert Hernandez interview". The Comics

Journal (Fantagraphics Books) (158). ISSN 0194-7869 (https://www.worldcat.org

/issn/0194-7869).

Web

Gravett, Paul. "Creator Profile: Chester Brown" (https://web.archive.org

/web/20110910090845/http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/profiles/creator

/chester_brown/). paulgravett.com. Archived from the original

(http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/profiles/creator/chester_brown/) on

2011-09-10. Retrieved 2011-04-07.

Hatfield, Charles (2008-01-24). " "Hide with me": a page by Chester Brown

(admired by CH)" (http://www.webcitation.org/6U1TyuWlS). Thought Balloonists.

Archived from the original (http://www.thoughtballoonists.com/2008/01/hide-

with-me.html) on 2012-03-22. Retrieved 2012-06-19.

Heater, Brian (2009-06-23). "Interview: Jason Pt. 2 [of 2]" (https://web.archive.org

/web/20090626064328/http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2009/06/23/4049/). The Daily

Crosshatch. Archived from the original (http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2009/06

/23/4049/) on 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2011-04-07.

MacDonald, Heidi (2011-11-28). "Beat Holiday Giveaway: Chester Brown's The

Playboy and I Never Liked You" (http://www.webcitation.org/6U8fGSeEA). The

Beat. Archived from the original (http://comicsbeat.com/beat-holiday-giveaway-

cheser-browns-the-playboy-and-i-never-liked-you/) on 2014-11-17. Retrieved

2014-11-17.

Magee, C. Max (2006-02-08). "I Never Liked You by Chester Brown: A Review"

(https://web.archive.org/web/20110910174906/http://www.themillions.com

/2006/02/i-never-liked-you-by-chester-brown.html). The Millions. Archived from the

original (http://www.themillions.com/2006/02/i-never-liked-you-by-chester-

brown.html) on 2011-09-10. Retrieved 2014-11-17.

Park, Ed (2011-05-02). "Text Appeal" (https://web.archive.org

/web/20110505015730/http://www.torontostandard.com/culture-design/text-

appeal-some-notes-on-the-notes-of-chester-brown). Toronto Standard. Archived

from the original (http://www.torontostandard.com/culture-design/text-appeal-

some-notes-on-the-notes-of-chester-brown) on 2011-05-05. Retrieved 2011-05-05.

Santoro, Frank (2010-10-16). "Class with Frank part 2: Doin' the Chester"

(https://web.archive.org/web/20101021114355/http://comicscomicsmag.com

/2010/10/class-with-frank-part-2.html). Comics Comics. Archived from the original

(http://comicscomicsmag.com/2010/10/class-with-frank-part-2.html) on

2010-10-21. Retrieved 2011-04-30.


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Serrano, Jose A. (June 2007). "Nunca me has gustado, de Chester Brown"

(https://web.archive.org/web/20070716173227/http://www.guiadelcomic.com

/comics/nunca-me-has-gustado-chester-brown.htm). Guía del cómic (in Spanish).

Archived from the original (http://www.guiadelcomic.com/comics/nunca-me-has-

gustado-chester-brown.htm) on 2007-07-16. Retrieved 2014-11-17.

Verstappen, Nicolas (August 2007). "Chester Brown" (https://web.archive.org

/web/20080901030055/http://www.du9.org/Chester-Brown,1030). du9. Archived

from the original (http://www.du9.org/Chester-Brown,1030) on 2008-09-01.

Retrieved 2011-04-06.

Williams, Ian. "I Never Liked You" (http://www.webcitation.org/6U8ePqBnA).

Graphic Medicine. Archived from the original (http://www.graphicmedicine.org

/comic-reviews/i-never-liked-you/) on 2014-11-17. Retrieved 2014-11-17.

External links

I Never Liked You (http://comicbookdb.com/title.php?ID=22789) at the

Comic Book DB

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=I_Never_Liked_You&oldid=655372133"

Categories: 1994 graphic novels Autobiographical graphic novels

Books about mental health Canadian graphic novels

Drawn and Quarterly titles Books by Chester Brown

Comics by Chester Brown Books about introversion

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