Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography

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Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography is a highly acclaimed comic book biography of the Métis rebel leader, Louis Riel, by Chester Brown. Time Magazine included it in its annual Best Comix list.

The novel, drawn entirely using a six-panel grid, gives a somewhat sympathetic chronicling of Riel's resistance to the Canadian government's mistreatment of the Metis community, in both 1869-70 and 1885, which resulted in the Metis' military defeat, and Riel's trial and execution. Brown eschews defining exactly what Riel, the most debated figure in Canadian history, should mean to a contemporary audience. His ambivalence about Riel's status in Canadian history is revealed in the novel's very large appendix, which serves in part as a running commentary on the novel's action. In some instances, Brown wonders why he depicted certain scenes in the way he has, suggesting perhaps a postmodern approach to his subject, in that precise meaning is deliberately confused or left vague, thereby enjoining the audience to "fill in the gaps," as it were.

The full volume, published in hardcover in 2003, followed the serialized release of individual booklets, from 1999 to 2003. A softcover version was released in 2006.