Customer Reviews

The ACME Novelty Library #15: The Big Book Of Jokes II

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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Chris Ware is brilliant in every way. Design! Story! Dialogue! Pacing! Layout! Composition! This huge 32-page book (intended to evoke the huge comics sections of yore), printed luxuriantly on yellow-tinted thick paper, includes the serialized exploits of Rusty Brown (collector), Tales From The Future (consumer), and Quimby the Mouse (who has one strip for each season of the year).

Like in Acme #7, the centerfold is a huge Jimmy story (this time it's about Christmas). But there is another centerfold (printed on thick white paper) inside of THAT centerfold, which has a stereoscopic motion picture viewer cutout on one side and a Rusty Brown calendar on the other side. The movie viewer is nearly impossible to put together, but the calendar would make a great wall hanging. As always, the themes are always loss and grief -- but executed through the most brilliant whole-package design comics has seen since Krazy Kat or Flash Gordon. Every element is controlled and used to Ware's advantage.

Appearing in cameo is God/Superman (cover, where he appears as the antithesis of Jimmy), Rocket Sam (2 strips), and Big Tex (one strip). There's also a serious article by Ware, an obituary for his art teacher who died (it's even relevant to the book because he collected like Rusty Brown) which is especially touching because it's not funny or ironic. The cover itself unfolds to become a huge diagram to which I still haven't figured out all the meanings. And the cover is colored by HAND. It's beautiful.

One thing to watch out for is that the front cover has some spots in the white areas -- this was true for every copy at my local comics shop. I think they're all like that. So don't yell at Amazon if your copy is speckled. It's not a big deal, only in one area of the cover.

Notice Ware's cameos: he appears buying the edison rolls from Chalky White, his early book "Floyd Farland" is at Captain Kid's Treasure Trove, and his 6' display is in the small "Putty Gray" comic strip below the movie viewer cutouts.

His next book will be the first chapter in a full-length Rusty Brown novel. In a few years we should see a Chris Ware sketchbook from Germany (Fanta will import it). If you like this one, be sure to seek out Ware's other issues of the Acme Novelty Library at your local quality comics shop or Fantagraphics's web site.

Hint on storing this book: I keep my Acme 15 and 7 sandwiched in between my computer tower and the wall, and it works very well.

-Yakov.

The Jimmy Corrigan saga having culminated in Mr. Ware's gorgeous, haunting, touching graphic novel of last year, the Acme universe expands in this new issue to include the horrid Rusty Brown, and it's wonderful. Unlike most of the other numbers in this series, the unprecedentedly huge #15 is a collection of mostly one or two page comics, comprised of Tales of Tomorrow, Quimby the Mouse, Big Tex, the aforementioned Rusty Brown (an as of yet unsympathetic, spiteful collector of 1970s ephemera), and even a welcome look in on Jimmy Corrigan. It's a given that Ware's books will be endlessly fun to look at from a design standpoint, but there's more to it than even that sizable accomplishment. I always feel alot happier about life in general after reading an Acme. In #15, Mr. Ware is no longer under the more serious demands of the Jimmy Corrigan story, and the comics here have more thematic freedom than the last few issues. The Jimmy Corrigan graphic novel made alot of friends of the format, and I hope that many of these carry over to this new book, to see how wonderful comics can be today.

It's a pity that the first review is one which slights what is simply a continuation of one of the greatest canons of art and literature of the past century.

It bristles me to see it be referred to as heavy-handed. This is much like saying some synphonic music is "too loud" or "too quiet."

Personal tastes aside, there are other errors in that review which cannot benefit anyone. . . comparing Rusty Brown to Jimmy Corrigan because they are both "comic book geeks" is ridiculous. The Jimmy Corrigan serial spanned generations in the same way, but the similarities end there.

How was J. Corrigan a comic book geek? The only thing in that surreal tale which related to a comic book was a bizarre version of a super man. Having read the entirety of C. Ware's work, I can assure you as an unfamiliar reader, that the characters have little or nothing in common.

So, as you should be able to gather on your own, anyone purporting "who needs this" and "its heavy handed" is just displaying their own tastes on their sleeve.

This book is fabulous. The larger format is always better and welcomed. Just that alone puts it way above most "drawn big and reduced" comics, as you are seeing it nearly 1 to 1.

The drawings are perfection. The stories are sentimental and endearing, no matter the protagonist.

The baffling aspect of the first review (o how painful to see such a review of chaff up front) is that it then says "if you'd like to see 'better' go to Dan Clowes' Eightball." Not only is it juvenile, as though there is a magical pyramid somewhere where all comic book writers compete to be the best and to adhere to someone's rather sketchily undefined tastes, but it detracts from one to serve another.

I am aping the first review by stating:
"If you like good things, you'll like this!"

But I will one up it by stating that if you are a fan of the series this is essential because it draws from every character, and if you're not it's a great primer because of the variety.

If your only exposure to Chris Ware is the collected "Jimmy Corrigan" graphic novel, you owe it to yourself to experience his work in its original, serial form. However, this most recent issue of The Acme Novelty Library is a less than ideal introduction to the book. While the issue features typically superior artwork and, in its best moments, achieves breathtaking sadness, by and large there is nothing here that Ware hasn't already tackled in "Jimmy Corrigan." The Quimby Mouse stips are able to relate a precise and poignant element of misery, as does the excellent strip on the inside cover. However, most of the issue does not match these highlights. The Jimmy Corrigan strip included here is merely redundant, simply reiterating plot points already made in the serial. The "Tales of Tomorrow" are, for the most part, heavy-handed and overly austere. And the introduction of "Rusty Brown" is a big disappointment. Do we really need another story about a pathetic comic book geek? Rusty is like Jimmy Corrigan, except that is he is more repugnant than pathetic. If you loved "Jimmy Corrigan," you will *like* Acme Novelty Library #15. For a more adept handling of similarly cynical attitudes, check out Daniel Clowes's newly-published Eightball #22.

the reviewer who said he didn't "get" chris wares illustrations is obviously a no-talent hack who wouldn't know real art if it was staring him in the face. maybe you should just stick to thomas kincade paintings of pretty streams and rainbows.

For my money, Chris Ware is one of the outstanding artists of the late 20th/early 21st centuries. His meticulous, bitter, bleakly funny vision is best viewed in his sporadically released volumes of the "Acme Novelty Library" from Fanatgraphics-- even more so than in his bound collection of Jimmy Corrigan narratives (almost all of which came from the previously published ANLs). The early large-format ANLs are unsurpassed, and this new volume returns to those heady days-- this huge magazine format, in full color, shows Ware to his best advantage. As always his draftsmanship is precise to the point of absurdity, and his characters suffer unimaginably in his peculiar little hells. Ware is without equal-- buy this and see why, then investigate the first four ANLs as well to see more of his best.

This book is really big. I have to fold it in half to store it.