The personal and revealing deal with Brown's social awkwardness and introversion, and the artwork and page layouts are minimal and organic.
Chester Brown grew up in Châteauguay, a Montreal suburb with a large English-speaking minority;[1] he does not speak French.
After making a name for himself in alternative comics with the surreal serial Ed the Happy Clown, Brown turned to autobiography[6] under the influence of the work of Julie Doucet and Joe Matt.
[7] After bringing Ed to an end, Brown moved on to a series of personally revealing autobiographical stories, starting with "Helder" in Yummy Fur #19.
Some of Brown's autobiographical early stories dealt with himself as an adult, but he quickly ran into problems with friends who disagreed with his depiction of them.
He says he found "the intense emotions of the period [of adolescence], as you’re figuring out sex and love and everything" to be "bound to produce rich material for stories.
[7] The story takes place in a rooming house with shared kitchen and washrooms where Brown lived in Toronto in 1984.
Brown's character worries about the artistic decisions he has made, consulting with friends Kris (his ex-girlfriend), Mark Askwith and Seth, but getting conflicting advice.
[13] He changed some of the panels of "Helder" (mainly of Brown's character breaking the fourth wall by talking to the readers) on the advice of Askwith and Kris.
Originally, Brown had penciled in the panels with borders and backgrounds, but when it came time to ink the artwork, he decided to ink only what he considered essential, dropping the borders and much of the background detail, later saying he had "become dissatisfied with [his] drawing style for awhile and wanted it to be freer -- more spontaneous.
[17] His obsession so overcomes him that, even when his mother passes away while he is at camp, his first thought at returning home is to retrieve the Playboy he has hidden in the woods.
[18] His obsession interferes with his relations with women as an adult: he can maintain an erection for one girlfriend only by fantasizing about his favourite Playmates, and discovers he prefers masturbation to having sex with her.
[19] The story was serialized under the title Disgust[15] in issues #21–23 of Yummy Fur, at the time published by Vortex Comics.
[20] Brown stated that he intended a longer story encompassing what ended up in The Playboy and I Never Liked You, but found it too complex to handle when he started to plan it out.
Brown says he was seen flipping through a copy of Yummy Fur #25, but believes "Danny" didn't recognize himself in the story.
[26] Brown serialized the story under the title Fuck in issues #26–30 of Yummy Fur between October 1991 and April 1993.
[29] After breaking up with his girlfriend, Sook-Yin Lee, Brown gives up on "possessive monogamy" and makes the case for taking up the life of a "john", detailing each of the 23 prostitutes he has visited to date and his debates with friends over the issue.
[31] Ultimately he was inspired to try his hand at it by Joe Matt's and Julie Doucet's recent forays in autobio.
"Showing Helder" was also significantly rearranged when it was reprinted in the Little Man collection, and some of the panels were completely redrawn.
[33] American cartoonist Gilbert Hernandez hailed The Playboy and I Never Liked You as "probably the best graphic novels next to Maus";[34] British cartoonist Eddie Campbell called them "the most sensitive comics ever made";[35] and American comics writer Heidi MacDonald called I Never Liked You "a masterpiece" that is "the equal of any 'coming of age' movie".
[36] Alongside Seth's It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken and Joe Matt's The Poor Bastard—works by Brown's Toronto-based friends and Drawn & Quarterly stablemates—Brown's work is seen as a prominent example of the 1990s autobiographical comics trend.