World Famous Comics: Acme Novelty Library #18 (Acme Novelty Library)
Acme Novelty Library #18 (Acme Novelty Library)
By: Chris Ware Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Drawn & Quarterly Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 56 Publication Date: December 10, 2007 Release Date: December 10, 2007
In keeping with his athletic goal of issuing a volume of his occasionally lauded ACME series once every new autumn, volume 18 finds cartoonist Chris Ware abandoning the engaging serialization of his “Rusty Brown” and instead focusing upon his ongoing and more experimentally grim narrative “Building Stories.”
Collecting pages unseen except in obscure alternative weekly periodicals and sophisticated expensive coffee-table magazines, ACME Novelty Library #18 reintroduces the characters that New York Times readers found “dry” and “deeply depressing” when one chapter of the work (not included here) was presented in its pages during 2005 and 2006. Set in a Chicago apartment building more or less in the year 2000, the stories move from the straightforward to the mnemonically complex, invading characters’ memories and personal ambitions with a text point size likely unreadable to human beings over the age of forty-five. Reformatted to accommodate this different material, readers will be pleased by the volume’s vertical shape and tasteful design, which, unlike Ware’s earlier volumes, should discreetly blend into any stack or shelf of real books.
Some new ground, some old ground A must-read for Ware fans. It's a compelling narrative with the same quality artwork we've come to expect and is reasonably priced for such a beautifully-designed hardcover.
That said, it's a valid criticism that Ware treads too much familiar territory, here and in all his post-Jimmy Corrigan work. Yes, he experiments in this book, but it's in the style he had already carved out by 1995. We see Ware experimenting with different artistic styles in his notebooks, so why never in his comics? Ware's layouts, lettering and unconventional use of panels in this issue are interesting as always, but it's hard to say his style has evolved or grown in the almost fifteen years he's been doing Acme. Artistically, we've seen this all from Ware before.
Thankfully, Ware *is* evolving as a storyteller. Jimmy Corrigan, although inventive, was a bit too much about being Chris Ware, and it's nice that here, in issue #18, Ware is exploring the world of a female protagonist. Certain scenes, particularly the sex scenes, have never been portrayed with this level of damning honesty and accuracy in any other medium. Ever.
Some people decry Ware's perennial exploration of loneliness and depression. The great comic book writer Grant Morrison once said, "I love Chris Ware's work and consider him a formal genius, but... I sometimes feel like slapping him upside the head and telling him to stop moaning about everything. Sorry, but I live in one of the poorest cities in Europe, and when I see privileged Americans whining about how awful everything is in their sunlit world, I have to gag into my porridge. Kill yourself or get over it, buddy." It's hard to disagree, but perhaps we can appreciate Ware as the best and most determined artist exploring a certain type of American... not outcast, exactly, but people with lower social status or perceived value: the chubby girl, the cripple, the socially awkward guy, the uncool kids... People who are rarely represented in the media and who our American culture, which celebrates the beautiful and confident, looks down upon. Ware is their patron saint, of sorts, but presents them with flaws just like the rest of us.
I'd personally like to see Ware loosen up, artistically and thematically, but whatev. This issue is a powerful read.
Gets under your skin Dolorous and melancholy, Chris Ware's work has always drawn me like a moth to flame. I can't recall a work from a female perspective before, and this one is a quiet, soft, lovely work about a sad and lonely woman who has had a very intense life. The work of deciphering his labyrinthine panel constructions or reading all the fine print has always paid off and this work is no different, but this one sticks out for me a little for being even more intimate than his other more clinical studies of his characters. And his draftsmanship is without peer, as always.
"Stunning" Masterpiece With his latest "comic book" offering, Chris Ware has again demonstrated a mastery of the medium uniquely his own. His design sense and technical skill as an illustrator long unquestioned, his writing routinely (and especially here) deserves the same consideration.
Underneath the story's typically apparent theme of alienation (with new characters in the Acme Library, if I'm not mistaken), there is much more at work. Amazingly, over just 56 pages, Ware's finely crafted drawings along with well considered dialogue and occasional stream-of-consciousness narration provide the reader an awful lot to ponder (a good prose writer would need hundreds if not thousands of pages and could still not fully convey the beauty in this slim volume). However, the mind is further boggled when Ware concludes his details-laden enterprise with one very... simple... tiny... wordless... panel. The effect is instant having read it, and I recommend all experience it.
The author describes this as part of an ongoing story, and that may well be. However like all good comics, this story is complete as is. Indeed within the book, certain single page, two page, and especially a few multi-page spreads also constitute complete satisfying stories. Should the reader approach the work with even some of the imagination Ware himself must employ, every single panel is itself can be a complete story. As an illustrator in the truest sense, that may be Ware's intent.
So the "Stunning Masterpiece" title given this review is not to indicate one should ever be surprised when Ware tops even his own earlier triumphs, but rather because the reader may actually be left stunned at the story's conclusion, fair warning given.
There are always great expectations placed on Mr. F.C. Ware, who here delivers devastating inspiration (inspired devastation?) in the calm and measured manner of a master at work. Wow.
Not Another One of Those... The artwork is quite wonderful, to say the least, as is the narrative. BUT the theme however...how many graphic novels/comic books out there depict this same alienation/loneliness/depressed theme over and over and over again to a point where these stories blur into one big whine. I mean, I get that not all stories can be like Maus or Persepolis and the like, but give me a break.
I bought this for the artwork though. The 3 stars go to that.
Beautifully Rendered, Deeply Affecting This is a beautifully rendered, deeply affecting work of art. I am not much of a comic reader, but once I started this one I could not put it down. And when I finished, I was crying. Readers of The New York Times Magazine will be familiar with the setting of the old building with feelings and the character of a woman with a prosthetic leg. The story here focuses on her: a lonely, alienated young woman's first experience with love and loss, depression and despair. Told this way, with sensitivity and empathy -- in Chris Ware's tight, tender little drawing style, like I said -- it moved me deeply. Very sad, yes. But beautiful.
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