Its characters all somehow come across as miniature people racing across a dioramic landscape. Louis Riel is an oddly bloodless book, particularly given it covers a particularly violent period in the early history of Canada. Similarly, the eponymous character’s conversion from ordinary Red River settlement inhabitant to political leader of the Métis people takes less than two pages. The characters speak in pure exposition, and the economy of Brown’s storytelling is such that the negotiation and eventual sale to the Canadian Government of Rupert’s Land (a territory in British North America) is accounted for in just four panels. Originally serialised in comic form over four years, the collection of these ten issues into a single volume is by far the best way to experience the initially perfunctory feeling Louis Riel. Seemingly growing tired of autobiography, Brown diverted into something stranger with his, eventually abandoned, series Underwater, before turning his clear-headed, dispassionate style to something different – a biography of Canadian politician Louis Riel. At a time when alternative comic books were chock full of true life stories of this type, Brown’s work stood out for its lyricism and ability to find profundity within its confessional subject matter. His first ongoing series, Yummy Fur, featured a free-flowing ongoing strip called ‘Ed the Happy Clown’, before the title evolved into an autobiographical account of the cartoonist’s formative years. Chester Brown creates nonchalantly brilliant comics books.

Louis riel comic book