Chester Brown Does It Again!

Say what you want, and everyone has at this point about PAYING FOR IT, but Chester Brown is the medium's one true iconoclast. You may recall that back in May NY Times book critic, Dwight Garner, weighed in on 2011's most talked about comics with the following praise: It delivers a series of moral and cerebral and horndog thwacks. It will stick in your mind and perhaps in your craw. It’s a real if squeamish-making work of art.

And now the New York Times Book Review weighs in with their review, making PAYING FOR IT, Drawn & Quarterly's first book to be reviewed twice by the Grey Lady, and one of a handful of comics, I imagine, to share this honour. So who did the Review get to give their opinion? Well, just famous, sex activist and former sex worker Annie Sprinkle!

It's seems so obvious to have a sex worker review the book, it's surprising that no one thought of this before. And boy what a review it is. Sprinkle rightly starts off the review making the clear distinction that very few men have ever come out as proud johns before and ends the book with how there has never been a treatise on sex work like Paying For it And ends with This will be a welcome book to prostitutes every where, especially those who have been raped, robbed or busted in places where laws and stigmas against the business make such experiences all the more traumatizing. It is also a valuable resource for academics, a challenge to law enforcement and politicians, and a boon to johns the world over. And in the middle shares her own experiences as a sex worker to reflect on the book.

It's a fascinating must-read. Congrats to Chester!

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