Acme Novelty Datebook Volume Two: 1995 - 2002 (Hardcover)

by Chris Ware (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Alternative-comics artist Ware reveals the impressive technical skills and thought processes behind his acclaimed graphic novels in a second collection of his sketchbook pages. The handsomely designed volume gathers hundreds of portraits, watercolors, unfinished comics pages, and other artwork. Life drawings with detailed shading display a radically different style from the simple line-work of Jimmy Corrigan (2000), Ware’s chef d’oeuvre (thus far), while still lifes and cityscapes show the mechanical precision of his comic strips. Cruel self-portraits and strips entitled “I Am Filled with Despair” and “Yesterday Was a Terrible Day” suggest that the harsh worldview of Ware’s graphic novels is more than a literary device for him. --Gordon Flagg

Product Description

Straggling behind the mild 2003 success of cartoonist Chris Ware's first facsimile collection of his miscellaneous sketches, notes, and adolescent fantasies arrives this second volume, updating weary readers with Ware’s clichéd and outmoded insights from the late twentieth century.
Working directly in pen and ink, watercolor, and white-out whenever he makes a mistake, Ware has cannily edited out all legally sensitive and personally incriminating material from his private journals, carefully recomposing each page to simulate the appearance of an ordered mind and established aesthetic directive. All phone numbers, references to ex-girlfriends, “false starts,” and embarrassing experiments with unfamiliar drawing media have been generously excised to present the reader with the most pleasant and colorful sketchbook reading experience available. Included are Ware's frustrated doodles for his book covers, angry personal assaults on friends, half-finished comic strips, and lengthy and tiresome fulminations of personal disappointments both social and sexual, as well as his now-beloved drawings of the generally miserable inhabitants of the city of Chicago. All in all, a necessary volume for fans of fine art, water-based media, and personal diatribe. This hardcover is attractively designed and easy to resell.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly; illustrated edition edition (December 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1897299184
• ISBN-13: 978-1897299180
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #326,681 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing., January 8, 2009

By	Brian Lange (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is undoubtedly one of the most amazing artist's books I have ever come across.

It first caught my eye in Chicago's popular Quimby's bookstore. There is a whole rack dedicated to Chris Ware's work (guess why). I became aware of him through his decadent cinematic "Jimmy Corrigan" collection. This book is a collection of preliminary ideas for all his grossly insightful characters and stories, as well as incredibly consummate and fanatical sketches and journal entries that seem to be drawn with a constant and overbearing nervousness.

His unparalleled talent shines through page to page. Sometimes a simple sketch, other times a complex watercolor, you'll find panels filled with such scrupulous detail, you'll be tempted to get a magnifying glass just to read the words alone. Chris' obsessive and compulsive tendencies are evident in every single pen stroke.

He seems to spend a lot of time in public waiting areas, as the majority of his sketches are of this. Often he will write a "short" blurb next to each sketch... almost criticizing the world and judging what is around him, as well as hiding nothing back of his inability to interact with women (or anyone else for that matter) You will get inside the mind of Chris Ware, even if you don't ask for it.

This book is rich, complex, deeply intellectual and will keep you occupied for months. It is the best example of an artist's journal I have seen.