Clumsy

I had never heard of this book until I was browsing the shelves of my local library. For some reason it appealed to me so I checked it out, and I am so glad that I did. I actually found this work to be rather brilliant and completely relatable to anyone who has had a relationship that just didn't work out.

Some readers may be turned off by the art since it is very simplistic and unpolished. However, that's the point. This story is about two young people in their 20's who fall in love and the art helps to depict their youth and naivety. Jeffrey Brown does a great job of making sure that the art depicts this at all times.

The story itself is highly accurate. Having gone through a relationship much like this one, I could completely relate to show more the characters. This all at once made me a little sad but also happy when it got me to think back on the good times I had.

The book is made up of a bunch of little defining moments in the relationship that are sometimes told out of order. Also, by defining moments, I don't mean all of them were major game changing moments in their relationship. Many of the times depicted in the book are just small things that happen on a daily basis that have their own way of defining a relationship; those little conversations that made both of you laugh, the cute moments that made you feel so fortunate to have found that person, and the little spats that are spattered about in any relationship. All of them are included in this book, and many of them are highly telling of the characters themselves and the future of their relationship.

Ultimately, this relationship ends, but not in a nasty "I'm never going to talk to them again" way. It simply peters out. And while not as scarring as the yelling and hateful break-ups that sometimes happen, it is still affecting. Everyone has had this relationship. One day, you love the other person to the ends of the earth, the next it all just seems like a tired routine, and Brown captures this feeling really well.

Sometimes, relationships just don't work and while it may seem that love is an impossible thing to hold on to, we have to remember that it doesn't mean that you didn't really love each other, you did, it just wasn't the kind that lasted.

This book is a great depiction of the love that is simply lost and how sometimes, there's nothing that can really be done about it. Sometimes it just happens. I would recommend this book to anyone who has gone through this type of relationship. Even though it may bring up some sad memories it will also bring the happy ones, and in the end, you just feel a since of nostalgia and maybe a little thankfulness for having had that person in your life, because even though it didn't work out, you still learned a lot from it, and that makes all the difference. show less

The very best of Jeffrey Brown's comics; funny and sad and sweet and full of moments that make you go, "oh, I remember that..." If you've ever dated, or had a relationship go bad, then you'll understand this book. Sparsely drawn, disarmingly cute, most of what he's written since doesn't quite have the same freshness or sincerity.

Having disliked this and unable to finish Blankets, I have come to the conclusion that I just don't want to consume White Dudes on Relationships anymore. I felt that there wasn't enough truth or depth to connect to here. While rough, the art didn't bother me at all, it was distinct and consistent and conveyed the action well enough. Too much of the book read to me as sex=relationship and...that is one of the many issues of society and one I staunchly disagree with. So. Yeah. As a creator, Jeffrey Brown is wonderfully talented and his Star Wars books are cute and I'm sure my kiddo will love them once he can read, but as an introduction to his autobio work, Clumsy was not the best.

If there's High Church and Low Church for the graphics half of graphic novels, this book is the leaky shack of the First Antioch Free Will Baptist Church in BFE, Alabama. That's fine by me, I'm in this genre for the novel half, and I think I tend Low Church anyway.

The subject matter drew me in to reading this, as I enjoy reading about blossoming relationships going bad and sad, as one does. Melancholic Low Church then, sounds promising. But it's all really banal, there's little evidence of any insight into their personalities or relationship, and the breakup comes smack out of nowhere on about the last page. It's like the author had never heard of story arc.

Not really recommended.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

The Chicago Public Library recently entered a partnership with online content provider Hoopla, which among other things means I suddenly have access to thousands of old comic books I've never read before, including most of the back catalog of Top Shelf, Dark Horse and Boom! Studios. And this also includes the first three published books by adored indie artist Jeffrey Brown, his so-called "Ex-Girlfriend Trilogy," so I've decided to take them on once a month from now until Christmas.

Now, admittedly, I've already read Brown's charming series of show more recent books exploring the adventures of new dad Darth Vader and his precocious children Luke and Leia, so I know already that he eventually learns as a comics artist to write actual coherent gags and to develop a professional drawing style; because otherwise, I probably would've been just as offended by the sloppy amateurism of his first book, 2003's Clumsy, as so many other angry, angry reviewers here at Goodreads are. And they have every right to be that angry, because it seems almost a crime against humanity that a cartoonist this bad should have racked up such a huge amount of accolades and fans at the beginning of his career; because to be clear, not only are the vignettes in Clumsy (all of them concerning a long-distance girlfriend he seems to have had in...college?) these non-narrative little pointless slice-of-life pieces, but they're not even particularly interesting slices of that life, in many cases seeming to be just literally some random afternoon that Brown happened to pluck out of his memory where absolutely nothing happened and there's no interesting story to relate.

I have to admit, it makes for a maddening reading experience, and will inspire many to angrily shake their iPad and scream, "Jesus fucking Christ, Brown, won't you just write at least one goddamn story that I was actually glad I took the 60 seconds to read, for God's sake??!!" Thankfully, though, he seems to have finally gotten that message by here in the 2010s; so that will make it an interesting experience over the next few months to get caught up with all his books between then and now, and to see how this progression into actual readable comics displays itself over the course of fifteen years. I'll keep you apprised of the latest; but for now, I most decidedly do not recommend starting with this first book of his, which runs the risk of ruining your tolerance for him before you ever get even close to the good stuff. show less

This book came recommended to me, but after finishing I'm really not sure why. I am not impressed by the Lennon-esque art/doodling or by the story, which is a hackneyed loved-and-lost-in-vignettes plot. Topic, form, and content all seem painfully young. It is obvious what the drive to write was, but I'm not sure what the draw to read is -- therapy in knowing that other people are clingy and brokenhearted too? Other people do praise this work, but it isn't for me.

Reading this made me feel very uncomfortable because it is so human and real. Brown is brave to put so much of himself out there.