| Lowlife | |
|---|---|
 Cover ofA Complete Lowlife (1997) for thetrade paperback collected edition, art byEd Brubaker. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Caliber Comics,MU Press |
| Format | Limited series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | 1992–1995 |
| No. of issues | 5 |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Ed Brubaker |
| Artist | Ed Brubaker |
| Collected editions | |
| A Complete Lowlife | ISBN 0-9698874-7-7 |
Lowlife is a semi-autobiographicalcomic book series written and drawn byEd Brubaker, originally published byCaliber Comics and laterAeon Press. Collected editions were put out by Aeon andBlack Eye Books.
TheComics Journal described the book as following the "frustration and cynicism of disenchanted slacker kids finding excitement in their uneventful lives".[1] The series was described byThe Stranger as "part fiction, part autobiography, the narratives hover between sincerity and parody, with moments of transcendence that lift it out of the realm of the ordinary comic book".
Brubaker cited his work here as an influence on later works:
I'm exploring the same themes in myBatman comics and myCatwoman comics that I was probably exploring inLowlife: family relationships, personal relationships, people not being able to escape their past. . . . That's the stuff that interests me, and that's the stuff I write about.[2]
Lowlife was Brubaker's first professional work.[2] The work is semi-autobiographical, based upon the lives of the author and his friends but "with the names changed".[2]
Lowlife debuted in 1992 with two issues published byCaliber Comics. Issues #3–5 were published in 1994–1995 by theMU Press imprintAeon Press.
The series has been collected into a number oftrade paperbacks:
