Comic book guys share misanthropic wisdom

The prefab banality built around Mel Lastman Square once felt a world apart from the perversions illustrated by Chester Brown in his 1980s comic Yummy Fur – followed by his more autobiographical stories about growing up as an introverted outsider. But after the publication of Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography in 2003, his position this spring as writer-in-residence at the North York Central Library either reflects the validation of Brown’s endeavors, or the idea that the shoulder pad landscape north of Yonge and Sheppard can finally facilitate traces of a downtown aesthetic, or maybe it’s a little bit of both. The artist’s primary task is reviewing graphic novel manuscripts from anyone over age 16, followed by a personal consultation, with submissions accepted until April 30 – and for those who miss the deadline or don’t know where to begin, a hands-on workshop on “The Art of the Graphic Novel” takes place on Saturday, June 3. Hopefully there’s a few young cartoonists whose first-person tales of 21st century local suburbia will be encouraged by the interaction; besides, everything that could be drawn about GenX nostalgia, followed by the neurotic 1990s experience of being overeducated and underemployed, seems to have been preserved in comic book form. Brown’s fellow travelers in this medium followed divergent paths – Palookaville creator Gregory “Seth” Gallant settling into a pastoral pursuit of his pre-rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic, recently reflected in the book Wimbledon Green: The Greatest Comic Book Collector in the World, in addition to designing the archives of Peanuts; Joe Matt, the creator of Peepshow, took off for Hollywood to adapt his first-person tales of poor, broke and lonely Toronto life, The Poor Bastard. Did the sensibilities that fueled the earlier work of this trio grow up and grow out of this city, though? (Comments welcome below.) Nowadays, the flamboyant whimsy of Toronto Islands resident Maurice Vellekoop is positioned to make him the illustrator of the so-called cultural renaissance – his latest book, A Nut at the Opera, gets launched at The Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen St. W.) with the taping of a CBC Radio quiz show on Tuesday (April 25). But the greatest progenitor of illustrated self-loathing, retired hospital file clerk Harvey Pekar, spreads the love at Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex Ave.) on Wednesday (April 26), promoting Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story, in which Pekar scripts the life of someone more abrasive than himself.