After growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Brown moved to Chicago in 2000 to pursue an MFA at the School of the Art Institute. By the time he finished his studies, Brown had abandoned painting and started drawing comics seriously.
Career
Brown specializes in personal and intimate works detailing moments in relationships. He writes and draws his comics in sketchbooks, and his drawing style mirrors the strain and awkwardness of the situations he depicts. His first self-published book, Clumsy, appeared seemingly out of nowhere to grab attention from cartoonists and comics fans, alike. Established as a sensitive chronicler of bittersweet young-adult romance and nonsensical superhero parody, Brown's current direction remains split between autobiographical material, examining the minutae of everyday life, whatever humorous fiction he feels in the mood for, and a wide range of fiction subjects in his series Sulk. Brown has also created two series of books set in the Star Wars expanded universe. In 2012, Brown told USA Today about how Mark Alan Stamaty's picture book Small in the Saddle had influenced his own career and about subsequently meeting its author; Brown's girlfriend had helped him find a copy.
Personal life
Brown lives in Chicago with his wife Jennifer and their two sons.
Comic works
Brown's most popular works - Clumsy, Unlikely, and AEIOU - comprise the so-called "Girlfriend Trilogy" and its epilogue, Every Girl is the End of the World For Me. More recently, his autobiographical work has included Little Things, and the memoirs Funny Misshapen Body and A Matter Of Life. His humorous works include Bighead, I Am Going To Be Small, Cat Getting Out Of A Bag, Kids Are Weird, and the graphic novel seriesIncredible Change-Bots. His work has been featured in MOME Summer 2005, Vol. 1, as well as Drawn and Quarterly Showcase, McSweeney's #13, and The Best American Comics 2007. He was also featured in local newspapers such as the Chicago Reader and NewCity. Brown's "To Phoenix I'm Sorry I Missed You" was published in the Spring 2008 issue of The Florida Review. Brown has written and drawn seven books set in the Star Wars expanded universe. These include four humorous takes on Darth Vader as a hapless father to young Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia - Darth Vader and Son, Vader's Little Princess, Goodnight, Darth Vader, and Darth Vader and Friends - and three volumes in the Jedi Academy series, which are young-adult novels done in the mixed cartooning and diary style of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
Critical and commercial reception
He won an Ignatz Award in 2003 in the category of Outstanding Mini-Comic, for I Am Going To Be Small. James Kochalka has called Brown's Clumsy his "favorite graphic novel ever." Clumsy was originally self-published and was later published by Top Shelf Productions; as of 2007, an estimated 20,000 copies have been printed, according to an interview with Brown in The Comics Journal. Brown won back-to-back Eisner Awards for Best Humor Publication, for Darth Vader And Son and Vader's Little Princess.
Other work
Brown has contributed to NPR's This American Life. Brown directed the animatedmusic video for Death Cab for Cutie's "". He was featured in Bruce Parsons' documentary Drawing Between The Lines. He illustrated the movie poster for the feature-length documentary Rabbit Fever. He co-wrote the feature film, Save the Date, with Egan Reich and Michael Mohan. The film, directed by Mohan, stars Lizzy Caplan, Alison Brie, Martin Starr, Geoffrey Arend, and Mark Webber.
