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Acme Novelty Library




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Acme Novelty Library #20: Lint Chris Ware Drawn and Quarterly Acme Novelty Library $21.50
($23.95 list)
Acme20
Read more and comment... 		Well, it's here:  the latest issue in The ACME Novelty Library.  We haven't had the chance to crack it open yet, but nonetheless feel safe in saying that:  "Hey, it's the latest by Chris Ware; do you really need to know anything else?"   Here's the first of what are sure to be many weighing-ins as to its significance.
Acme Novelty Library #19 Chris Ware Drawn and Quarterly Acme Novelty Library $15.95
($15.95 list)
Acme19
Read more and comment... 		Any among you who were anxious that Mr. Ware might choose to rest on his laurels and start "coasting" or "phoning it in" will have all their worries laid soundly to rest with this amazing volume.  Yes, this is a continuation of the "Rusty" Brown saga, but right from the start it takes a quite unexpected turn, the full implications of which are not fully apparent until the conclusion of the volume, and even then will likely inspire considerable pondering on the part of the reader.  The level of sophistication and nuance inhering to Ware's narrative strategy reaches new heights in this complex, multi-part and multi-layered work that is at once painfully embarrassing and deeply moving; a disturbing, fascinating and, finally, profound exploration of a callow nature and the genesis of an arrested development.  Ware's mastery of the craft of comics clearly continues to grow as well, and is on full display here, particularly in the beautiful subtleties of the coloring and in the use of page layout to finesse the stories' pacing.  In as much as one of the themes dealt with here is the 20th century American conflation of technology and the fantastic, it might be appropriate to describe Ware as creating a delicately constructed narrative feedback loop to inter-link the stories that constitute Acme Novelty Library 19, and thereby forge a single unified piece that pulses with living complexity, a method that carries with it an echo of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein --  the employment of mechanistic means to create an organic end -- which ushered in the conjunction of science and fiction.  Suffice it to say that Chris Ware's talents continue to astound and amaze.  (Also amazing and astounding is the fact that the price of this issue of Acme Novelty Library is less than that of the last two!)  Now out of print.  We only have a few remaining...
ACME Novelty Library #16 Chris Ware Acme Novelty Library $12.75
($15.95 list)
OUT OF STOCK!
Acme16sm
Read more and comment... 		This swellegant hardcover volume, the first produced solely under the auspices of Mr. Ware, is now comfortably nestled on our shelves.  Through its pages, you can experience the 1970s childhoods of "Rusty" Brown and "Chalky" White, in all their pain filled and angst ridden glory.  Produced in Ware's trademarked obsessive manner, this issue sees hints of new stylistic ironies as well as further classically based experimentation with the form.  Not to be missed.
ACME Novelty Library 18 Chris Ware Drawn and Quarterly Acme Novelty Library $17.95
($17.95 list)
OUT OF STOCK!
Acme18
Read more and comment... 		The 2007 Chris Ware trifecta is now complete(see below).   Ring out the year immersed in these fine-tuned renderings of early 21st century urban angst.  Chris sez:  "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, The ACME Novelty Library #18 re-introduces the characters which 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 character's memories and personal ambitions with a text point size likely unreadable to human beings over the age of 45. 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."