Underwater (comics)

''Underwater'' was an alternative comic book by award-winning Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown that was published from 1994 until 1997, when the ambitious project was abandoned unfinished by its creator.

The story was unconventional in that it was told from the perspective of a child who is still acquiring language. The dialogue of the characters is encoded into a "language" that at first appears to be gibberish. As the child matures, the parts of the dialogue start to appear as normal, uncoded English.

The series was unpopular with readers, and Brown gave up on the series after three years, although he has said he may return to it someday.

Overview

The story starts with the birth of twin sisters Kupifam and Juz and was intended to follow Kupifam's life up to her death. In the story as finished, she is still left as a young child who is still acquiring language. The "story seems to weave together dreams ..ith events occurring in the external world ..irtually every panel exudes a dream-like quality."Bell, pg. 162 As the story was left incomplete with Kupifam still a child, it gave the impression that it was about "captur nga state of infancy", but Brown insists it was "about more than just childhood."

In the story (as left incomplete), we see Kupifam and her twin being born, learning to walk and talk, beginning to learn to read, and start to attend school. There are frequent dream sequences, whose beginnings and ends are not clearly separated form the waking narrative, which, along with the artwork, gives the story a surreal feeling. In the cliffhanger that ends the last published issue, we see Kupifam being taken away in a car by her father, with the twins' sister Lafa helping.

Characters

The characters are drawn in a style largely inspired by cartoonists such as Frank King and Harold Gray. While they act like human characters, they are drawn in a bald, alien-like style, with exaggerated cartoon features and blank circles for eyes that are reminiscent of Gray's '' Little Orphan Annie'' comic strip.

;Kupifam:The main character; from her birth in the first issue, the story unfolds from her perspective.
;Juz:Kupifam's twin sister
;Lafa:the twins' older sister
;"Yuy":The girls' mother
;???:The girls' father
;Yonon Trod:Kupifam's teacher at school; first appeared in ''Underwater'' #9

Publishing history

For a few years, Drawn & Quarterly publisher and editor-in-chief Chris Oliveros had tried to convince Brown to change the title of '' Yummy Fur'' in the hopes of achieving higher sales. Brown announced in Yummy Fur #32 that he would change the title and start a new series, as the title no longer suited the contents, and he was about to "begin a new long fictional serial." At the time, Brown had not thought up a title for the series, and told readers to "feel free" sending in suggestions. Some readers' suggestions were printed in the letters page of Underwater #1.

''Underwater'' didn't sell as well as '' Yummy Fur'',Juno, pg. 144 which had been selling about 9000 copies per issue. In issue #8, Brown admitted it was "getting harder to" earn a living from ''Underwater'' and that the print run had fallen to 5500 as of issue #7. It would fall to 4000 by the end of the series.

Abandonment

Brown abandoned ''Underwater'' after the 11th issue and began work on the acclaimed ''Louis Riel''. Brown had realized he had problems with the book that he didn't know how to solve. At the end of 1997, Brown's father died. Brown figured that continuing with the series before working out its problems would be a waste of time, and his "father’s death had imthinking that edid not want to be wasting istime."

Brown had lost focus on the book:

Largely the problem was one of pacing:

Brown realized that, while improvising something like ''Ed'' may have worked, it didn't work as well for stories that were meant to be more realistic, as ''Underwater'', despite its surrealistic elements, was meant to be. After ''Underwater'', Brown took to scripting out his stories, starting with ''Louis Riel''.

After Brown left the series, he long appeared not to have abandoned hopes of returning to it, but disliked talking about it as discussing it may "kill any desire e hasto return to it in the future." In a 2011 interview with ''The Comics Journal'', however, he admitted that, while he had entertained the idea of returning to ''Underwater'', perhaps giving it the annotation treatment he had given to ''Ed the Happy Clown'' in 2004, his "heart just an’t in it" anymore.

Other stories

Along with the main ''Underwater'' story, Brown continued his adaptations of the Gospels in the ''Underwater'' seriesthis time continuing with the adaptation of the ''Gospel of Matthew'' that he had begun in '' Yummy Fur'' #15. Since the discontinuation of ''Underwater'', Brown has left off doing his Gospel adaptations, and the ''Gospel of Matthew'' itself remains unfinished. He says it's unlikely he will finish it.

Brown also published the notable anti-psychiatric comic essay '' My Mother was a Schizophrenic'' in issue #4 of the ''Underwater'' series.

Issues

Inspiration

Aside from the Frank King and Harold Gray influence on the drawing style, Brown had read the lengthy Chinese novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' when he started planning out ''Underwater'', which "guided a lot of isthinking in regards to ''Underwater'', especially the interplay between the dream world and the "real" world."Juno, pg. 147 He also says Robert Bresson's "restrained approach" to film left an impression that can be seen on ''Underwater''.

Reception

While Brown published some letters from enthusiastic fans, ''Underwater'' was generally not well accepted, The Comics Journal's Tom Spurgeon calling the serialization "a bust", lamenting that it took him about "90 seconds" to read the first three issues. He wrote, "''Underwater'' may be a masterpiece; time will tell. But I wouldn’t recommend seeing Citizen Kane in half-minute segments, either."

The slow pacing was a "frustrating experience" for many readers, "glacial in its rhythms and ungenerous" to readers who were getting the story in period installments. Critic Robert Boyd said, "The whole narrative concept of ''Underwater'' seems to depend on reading it all in one go, but we get it in little, unsatisfying bits"

See also

*Dream sequence
* Language acquisition
*Unfinished work

Notes

References

*Juno, Andrea. ''Dangerous Drawings''. Interview with Chester Brown. Juno Books, LLC., 1997. pp 130–147.
*Hatfield, Charles. ''Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature''. University Press of Mississippi, 2005.
*Bell, John. "Invaders from the North: how Canada conquered the comic book universe". Dundurn Group, Dundurn Press, Ltd., 2006.
*Morse, Eric A. and Mitchell, Ronald K. "Cases in entrepreneurship: the venture creation process". SAGE Publications, 2006.
*Chester Brown, Brown, Chester. '' Yummy Fur'' #32. Drawn & Quarterly, January 1994
*Brown, Chester. ''Underwater'' #8. Drawn & Quarterly, December 1996
*Brown, Chester. ''The Little Man (comics), The Little Man''. Drawn & Quarterly, October 1998. (softcover edition)
*Rogers, Sean. ''A John’s Gospel: The Chester Brown Interview'' par
12345678
The Comics Journal. 2011-05-09. retrieved 2011-05-10

External links

*Chester Brown'
catalogue page
at Drawn & Quarterly's website
*''Underwater'' cover paintings at Toronto comic sho
The Beguiling
s art stor
#5#6 (alternate cover)#9 (b&w recreation)#11Underwater
at the Grand Comics Database

{{DEFAULTSORT:Underwater
1994 comics debuts
Comics by Chester Brown
Drawn & Quarterly titles
Unfinished comics
Canadian comics titles