Jeffrey Brown's first two graphic novels Unlikely (2003) and Clumsy (2004) were pure comix-emo, describing with a mixture of charming (perhaps faux) vulnerability and precious self-regard the devastation from his first two relationships (his first in the second, his second in the first). Both have a wonderful melancholy humor and happy-sadness which makes them stand apart from what's currently in the field. Brown seemed to revive the dying art form of the alternative autobiographical comic with his gently powerful storytelling capability, using fractured time and personal-universal details to create compelling but not over-powering narratives.

            Brown is almost 30, a Michigan native whose life experiences—forming relationships with young women in taut patience out of casual acquaintanceships, using his journal-artwork as a refuge for emotional insecurity, having arguments with his partners over substance use—are perfect for new autobiographical comics readers to identify with. Starting with Clumsy, Brown gave up pursuing his MFA in relocated-to Chicago to devote expressing himself in his independent, black and white comics, and has branched into brilliant self-parody with the mini-comic Be A Man which hilariously destroys the fragile façade one might think he created to represent himself in the prior books.

            Top Shelf is now releasing the larger book-sized Bighead, and it is also in a genre that people have become wary of—Brown is moving from reconstructing auto-bio to reconstructing the mythology of the superhero, a couple of decades after a lot of mainstream and independent artists have already had a go at it.

            Is Bighead successful at this reinvention? Well, I don't think it was intended as a revolutionary way of looking at the superhero—instead, Brown seems to blend the silly, spontaneous humor of Too Much Coffee Man and The Flaming Carrot with something else. Where those two previously successful superhero parodies seemed to be more like editorial commentaries that blended cynical philosophy and political parody, Bighead seems more about just lying down in the fantastic four color sense of wonder field and rolling around stupidly, gobbling up all the inane fun one can from the very idea of beloved costumed vigilantes. Oh sure, there are some lighthearted swipes at classism and environmental wreckage, but to focus on the obvious content of Bighead might keep one from appreciating what it really is—a glorification of the absolute geekiness of the superhero stereotype as it is and has been for decades.

            The inside joke of course, is that Brown IS Bighead—from his too easily turned on and somewhat contrarian emotions, to his unrequited love for a gal going out with nemesis 'The Brit' one almost imagines that the great legion of dumbass villains he fights are actually enemies in Brown's own life, and the whole thing has been created just to make fun of them. Obviously, after reading the entire inconsistent book, which is sometimes perniciously humorous, often underdeveloped satirically, it seems like a lesser work in Brown's canon, but one that does surprisingly belong there after all.

            The unfamiliar are advised to go seek out Unlikely, Clumsy, and the pamphlet Be A Man immediately—Brown is really, really good at what he does and while Bighead is not an example of his stronger work, it's still a lot of fun (might even be the most preferred title for some reading this), and shows that the artist has both what it takes to keep making quality comics AND take risks.