The Acme Novelty Library is huge. Twice as tall as the typical comic book, and sturdy between it's hardcovers, it's an almost confusing mix of panel arrangements, small fonts and very clean graphics. One of the first things you notice when flipping through the book are a good number of pages that mimic the look of the kinds of adverts that will be familiar to readers of american comic books of the late 60s and early 70s. Quite delightful!
But once you get past it's size, the visual layouts and how the book feels in your hands, and start reading through what are mostly one page stories, you immediately realise that this is a book about tragedies - self-inflicted and thoughtlessly inflicted upon others, born from ignorance, an ignorance that's purely the result of the character's thoughts, ideas and beliefs.
Chris Ware's characters are a lonely and alienated bunch. They're trying to fill what they think is lacking in their lives by getting into relationships with people or machines, but selfishness or plain stupidity keep getting in the way and the result is emotional hurt to one or both parties.
It's mostly poignant stuff, and occasionally depressing.
For a Wikipedia Entry on Chris Ware and his work, click here.
While browsing the web for more on the author, I came across this Time article:
the depressing joy of Chris Ware (Nov 2001)If you live in Singapore, there are many copies in the National Library branches, under the Call Number 741.5973 WAR. The Central library alone has 3 copies.
