The Acme Novelty Library
by Chris Ware
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Book Summary Information
Author: Chris WareEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-09-20
ISBN: 0375422951
Number of pages: 108
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Reviews of The Acme Novelty Library
Book Review: A Rarity These Days
Summary: 5 Stars
I've always enjoyed Mr. Ware's contributions to the genre, but this book....What can I say?! Amazing! Not only are the storylines dense, engaging, and complex, but the book itself is achingly gorgeous. Beautifully bound, a larger size, and with such lovely cover design, it could easily be mistaken as the manual for some ornate piece of antique machinery, or perhaps the rulebook for some vast, arcane, cabal of cannabalistic mystics, but no....it's "only" a...a what..? I guess the work could be called an underground comic (possibly more "etheric" than "underground") or a 'sequentially illustrated story,' but there's more to it than that. A more intense scrutiny exposes troves of hidden extras tucked deftly in amongst the dreamlike narrative, and re-reading brings new treasures to light. This is quite alot to add to a book that is already so beautifully and painstakingly illustrated. Chris Ware's spare, fluid style reminds me of many things...a draftsman's blueprint...early baby boom era automobile advertising...and...uh...what..? Perhaps the cover illo from a post WWII sci-fi paperback? Japanese calligraphy on a grain of rice? Not quite...This work is very evocative, yet somehow still so very hard to pin down, and yes, I do agree that it takes some effort to read some of the smaller stuff! Thank goodness for that, hunh? Otherwise, how would he ever have crammed so much work into that poor overloaded, jam-packed, wedged-in-with-a-crowbar volume? This book was barely 'street-legal' as it was! So put on your specs or borrow a good magnifying glass, and drop the sniv- -its definitely worth the effort. Mr. Ware has graciously offered us many lovely gifts, so let us not complain that some of them require more delicate handling. If it were possible, I would give this book more than 5 stars--it is beautifully drawn, possesses a storyline that snares you neatly and painlessly, contains tons of hidden treats and tricks, and is so prettily bound that it almost screams 'collectible!!'....It is rare that any book deserves this title, and rarer still to hear this word being used, but here it is: I believe this book to be A TOME.
Summary of The Acme Novelty Library
Utterly eschewing the general bonhomie surrounding the newly-minted contemporary regard for the comic strip medium as a language of complicated personal expression and artistic sophistication, professional colorist and award-winning letterer F. C. Ware returns to the book trade with ?The ACME Novelty Library,? a hardcover distillation of all his surviving one-page cartoon jokes with which he tuckpointed the holes of his regular comic book periodical over thepast decade. Sometimes claimed to be his ?best work? by those who really don?t know any better, this definitive congestion of stories of the future, the old west, and even of modern life nonetheless tries to stay interesting by including a luminescent map of the heavens, a chart of the general structure of the universe, assorted cut-out activitites,
and a complete history of The ACME Novelty Company itself, decorated by rare photographs, early business ventures, not to mention the smallest example of a Comic Strip ever before offered to the general public. All in all, it will likely prove a rather mild disappointment, but at least it catches the light in a nice way and may force a smile here and there
before being shelved for the next generation?s ultimate disregard and/or disposal.
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