via Michel Viau comes word of this interview with Chester Brown in Subjects Magazine:
I think comics are a great medium. In a way, I think they are better for telling history. I read a lot of biographies, but six months after reading them, the details have already faded about that person’s life. If I wanted to quickly refresh myself it wouldn’t be as easy as picking up a comic book and reminding myself about the events that happened because pictures convey the story so quickly. Assuming I didn’t write this (Chester thumbs through a copy of Louis Riel), if I wanted to review the incidents of the story, I can gleam through them pretty quickly, after already having read the book. I think comics are a good way of telling history in that way for conveying information and then making it convenient for a reader after finishing the book.