publisher Casterman. To appeal to francophones in Europe, where Riel is not well known, Casterman had the book titled Louis Riel: l'insurgé ("Louis Riel: Rebel"). The Montreal-based publisher La Pastèque obtained the rights to the book and re-released it as Louis Riel with a different cover in 2012. Reception and legacy Though not the first work of biography in comics, Louis Riel was the first completed of its length and depth. The book sold well, and became the first graphic novel to reach Canada's non-fiction bestseller list. A critical and commercial success, it was especially popular with libraries and schools. Comics academic Jeet Heer states that it has perhaps sold more copies in Canada than any other graphic novel. Publishers Weekly called it "a strong contender for the best graphic novel ever", Time magazine included it in its annual Best Comix list in 2003, and, in 2009, the Toronto Star placed it on its list of the ten best books of "The Century So Far". It is regularly cited as being at the forefront of a trend in historical graphic novels, along with Art Spiegelman's Maus and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis. Especially in Canada, Louis Riel brought Brown out of the fringes into the mainstream, and also attracted more serious attention to graphic novels. It was the first work of comics to receive a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts (although Brown's libertarian politics have led him to condemn the government for handing out grants), and helped pave the way for the Council's special category for graphic novels. The book was optioned for a movie by Bruce McDonald and another film director, though the project never started filming. Researching Riel had a significant impact on Brown's thinking. When he started the book, he considered himself an anarchist. His intention was to write an anti-government book, and had a bias in Riel's favour—despite what Brown considered Riel's own political conservatism—as Riel opposed the government. Over the course of drawing the book, he came to sympathize more with Macdonald. His reading led him in 1998 to The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages by Tom Bethell, which led him change his own politics to favour libertarianism. He later ran for parliament as representative of the Libertarian Party of Canada, to the dismay of his friends. At one point, after Brown had started drawing the book, he tried to rewrite