Paying for It

The critically lauded memoir about being a john is now a major motion picture!

Paying for It was the most talked-about and controversial graphic novel of 2011, a critical success so innovative and complex that it received two rave reviews in The New York Times. Chester Brown’s eloquent, spare artwork stands out in this new paperback edition, tied to the release of the film adaptation co-written and directed by Sook-Yin Lee, Brown’s longtime friend and the director of Year of the Carnivore and Octavio is Dead!

Paying for It offers an entirely unvarnished exploration of sex work through Brown’s own life story, showing him as a timid john who rides his bike to his escorts, wonders how to tip so as not to offend, and reads Dan Savage for advice. The book demystifies an experience that is so often sensationalized, revealing a world of online reviews, seemingly willing participants, and clean apartments devoid of clichéd street corners, drugs, or pimps. In it, Brown combines the personal and sexual aspects of his autobiographical work (I Never Liked You, The Playboy) with the polemical drive of Louis Riel, as he explores one of the most hotly debated issues in the world and advocates for the importance of legalizing sex work.

Now with an introduction by Lee, expanded notes discussing the film adaptation, movie stills and behind the scenes shots, as well as a new cover by Brown and artwork that he created for the production, Paying for It: The Film Edition is an unmissable edition for fans of Brown and film-making alike.

Chester Brown was born in Montreal in 1960. He is the author of seven books and is best known for the non-fiction graphic novels Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography (2003) and Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John (2011). In 2024, Brown created a Louis Riel stamp for Canada Post as part of a set honouring Canadian cartoonists. He lives in Toronto.