I did not finish this book I put it down at 15%. It was confusing and hard to follow at times. I had trouble understanding what was going on.

I always enjoy reading someone's personal story through graphic novel form--it really puts you in the middle of the story.

While I love the mockumentary style, the art wasn't really for me and a lot of the 80's references went over my head. Paired with a pretty familiar story (young actor, exploited for his looks as a child, flames out when an adult), it's a mediocre read.

I usually love Box Brown's work, but this one was kind of a flop for me. It's certainly well done (I especially enjoyed the use of a faux-documentary format), but I just didn't connect to it the way I have to some of Brown's previous works.

The story of child star Owen Eugene will be familiar to anyone who watched television in the 1980s or from the 80s. Owen's a composite of a number of child stars, and not a particularly likable character. You might feel as if you are reading a biography of one of the many child stars who had a similar trajectory. I think I would have appreciated the story more if there were some twists and if it didn't seem so familiar. Otherwise, it's nicely done - I am a fan of Brian Brown's work, and this book is well-illustrated.

This documentary-style graphic novel gives a look into the life and times of fictional child star, Owen Eugene. From his overbearing stage parents and his sitcom catchphrase to his post-fame struggle to steady his life, this is a story we can see - have seen - unfolding on reality TV. It's all in here: interviews with co-stars, hangers-on, and former loves; the parents who felt they had a right to Owen's money; the D-list reality TV shows that feel like the last stop on the road to obscurity. Readers familiar with some of the bigger child star stories will recognize them in Owen Eugene's story. A sad look at the collateral damage of 1980s pop culture, Child Star is great reading, written by graphic novelist and biographer Brian "Box" Brown, award-winning writer and illustrator of Andre the Giant: Life and Legend, and Is This Guy for Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman. 


Child Star has a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

Thank you to first second for this advance reader copy. All opinions below are my own. Child Star depicts the absent childhood and inevitable decline of an ur-child actor who can never evolve beyond his starring sitcom role. Eugene, who stands in for all child actors who look too young/small to play as adults or those whose real appeal was cuteness and a catch-phrase, wants both to be treated as an adult and also fixates on the freedom and play of a childhood he never experienced. His parents are self-absorbed enablers who are more than happy to spend all of his money. The art style reminds me of newspaper strips like Peanuts and Kathy, fitting well with the 70s family sitcom vibe.

Where this falls short for me is that it feels like a graphic novel version of any tabloid-y memoir or biography. We never get to explore Eugene's need to feel normal, resistance to having sex, or lack of acknowledgement from the inside. To the end, he feels played off as a joke, and the comic comes across as shallow. Perhaps the author intended the comic to provide the same bland commentary on D-list celebrities as we get from entertainment news. However, I don't really feel like that is something we lack, or that it stands out as a hyper-aware, subtle criticism of entertainment consumer culture.

I was a big fan of the TV show Webster. Emmanuel Lewis plays a young African-American boy who is adopted by an ex-NFL lineman and his socialite wife. Webster is ridiculously cute and funny, and the script-writers take advantage of his looks and innocence. I remember getting to know him in the first season and then the plots in the subsequent seasons touched on social issues such as mixed-race families, sexual abuse, and wealth inequality. While the outward appearance, what came out of the screen in my living room, was perfectly cut and presented for my 7-year-old viewing pleasure, it’s the underlying issues of actor abuse and exploitation that Box Brown delves into in his book Child Star.

An impressively dense and thorough look at the child star phenomenon, Child Star looks at Owen Eugene and his run on a famous fictional show. Brown’s nonfiction or mockumentary approach gives the reader the perfect perspective to meet Eugene’s sidelined co-stars, greedy parents, and aggressive network executives. Each faction sits on their island with little understanding of the others except for what will get themselves the best bottom line.

After a meteoric rise to popularity, Owen slides back down to earth and his stardom starts to fade. This was both the most tragic part of the book as well as the most engrossing. I was fascinated by how Brown incorporated many of the examples from the well-known stars of the 80s and 90s. Soleil Moon Frye, Gary Coleman, and Ricky Schroder… you can see evidence of their and other actors examples on each page of the book.

My only criticism is that at times I was a little tired of the artwork. This is my third book by Brown (Andre the Giant and Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America) and I’m always blown away with his plot arcs, but the cartoony art style is so similar to his other pieces… I was left wanting some variety.

An informative and at times gripping account of the rise and fall of fictional “Child Star” Owen Eugene.

4 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, First Second, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

Box Brown has done it again with “Child Star”—a fictional telling of the real life experiences typical of many actual child actors. The writing, artwork, and demonstration of the graphic novel format’s strengths, Box Brown has created an affecting portrayal of fame, celebrity, and the lows and tragedies that have accompanied many child stars.

I really enjoyed the format used to tell the story of this fictional 80s child star who, like many real life ones, sadly crashed and burned. Presenting it in a very documentary, told-by-those-who-knew-him made it more engrossing than telling the story straightforward. The last few pages really get you.

I did not finish this book. It was confusing and boring. I had a hard time following the story and really had no clue what it was about even 20% in.

*Thank you Net Galley for the free review copy*
Child Star by Brian "Box" Brown was a fun, quick graphic novel that read like an Entertainment Tonight tell-all or an oral history of any child star. I sped through it within an hour or so and it was fun almost the entire way through. The very beginning of the book felt a bit repetitive with the multiple iterations of Owen's origins in the entertainment business, but that was my only major gripe. While I wish there was a bit more to the story, the pacing and flow of the storytelling and visuals kept me going. I would recommend this for fans of burnt-out child star biographies.

This is quite the interesting concept and I think the author did a great job getting that "E! True Hollywood Story" vibe throughout. This really dives into and provides some societal commentary on the struggles that many child stars experience after getting chewed up and spit out by the industry. The documentary style made it a fast read and allowed for many characters to add context and details to the story. Overall, this wasn't my favorite graphic novel ever but I think it's worth the read; especially if you're a fan of some celebrity drama.

I received a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review - Thanks NetGalley & FirstSecond!

Meh.
I absolutely loved this concept - a graphic tell-all biography of a fictional child star? That has SO much potential.
Sadly, this fell absolutely flat for me. To make this work, it could have gone one of two ways: laugh-out-loud funny or convincingly emotional. Instead this read like dry nonfiction and I would have put it down without finishing had it not been an ARC. I didn't *care* about any of the people and it also wasn't funny. On top of that, I really didn't vibe with the art style.

Although the author says this is a compilation of child stars that have been chewed up and spit out by the Hollywood machine, it very heavily leans on the life of Gary Coleman, who was stunted in his growth and so could play a child much longer than most children.

In the fictionalized version, Owen Eugene has something that also caused his growth to be stunted, and so can pass for much younger than he really is.

The story is told in a series of interviews with his co-stars, his parents, his agents, and all the people who knew him. There are also "scenes" from some of the shows, where we get to see what the plots of the shows were like. It is very 1980s.

It gives a well rounded background for this fictional child actor, and you can picture what his life must have been like.

Very well done.

A fictionalized, docu-style treatment of child stars seems like a can't-miss concept, but it falls a little flat as the main character is mostly presented through the words of other people. I don't feel like this book contributed to the societal dialogue of child stars, but rather just re-made a familiar narrative in comic form.

Though a fictional account, CHILD STAR echoes of the real life tragedies of many child actors and actresses who were chewed up by fame and then spat out. Brown really captures the way that celebrity, the industry, and even trusted family members can have the best interests of themselves over the child that is making them money, and it's frank and heartbreaking. And also filled with nostalgia regarding 80s sitcoms and the influence that morality politics had over the entertainment industry in the 80s. Owen is a figure we've seen many times before, and while he's pretty much Gary Coleman, there are echoes of the Bonaduces, Feldmans, and Haims of the Hollywood world within his story as well. The art is very much the same as Brown's previous works, and while I was skeptical about it with this subject matter going in I ended up really liking it. If anything it made the sometimes very sad content matter more approachable.

CHILD STAR is a book that will probably bum you out, but it's a story that we tend to sweep under the rug when it comes to fame and children.

This is a graphic novel with the feel of the old E! True Holliwood Story show. If you were a fan of that show or late 80's/90's sitcoms this is just filled with nostalgia. If you know much about Hollywood at all, you will recognize it as a very thinly veiled biography of Gary Coleman.

Box Brown has an amazing talent for taking difficult subjects and making them approachable. Here, he combines multiple tales from child actors and combined them into a cohesive story about the parts of Hollywood fame no one wants to talk about. Great illustrations and a fast paced story will keep any reader interested.

I am a huge fan of Brown's non-fiction graphic novels. It was interesting to read one that read the same but was factionalized. I understand he read up about his own favorite child actors and took them, mostly, tragic lives after fame into consideration. The story was engrossing and all too familiar in what we see in the media regarding former child actors. The art is great and it reads really easily.