Ed the Happy Clown

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Ed the Happy Clown is a very dark and surreal but influential graphic novel by the Canadian cartoonist, Chester Brown. Brown made his debut in comics with a self-published mini-comic called Yummy Fur, later published as a full size comic, initially reprinting the contents of the earlier mini. Its contents included Ed the Happy Clown, collected in graphic novel form by Vortex in 1986 and later in a somewhat different edition by Drawn & Quarterly. The bizarre misfortunes of the title character include being chased by cannibalistic pygmies and having the tip of his penis replaced by the head of a miniature, talking Ronald Reagan from another universe. Ed's adventures featured encounters with vampires, Martians, the Frankenstein monster and other characters out of traditional genre fiction, but presented with Brown's own twisted, blackly funny sensibility and topped with some dark Christian symbolism. Despite his ordeals, Ed remained a gentle, childlike innocent.

Brown explained later that "the Ed story came automatically, without any thought", and it is very different from his generally more earthbound, later work.

An Ed movie was announced some time ago, although its current status is unknown.

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