this review first appeared on [http://intraspace.blogspot.com]

chris ware's 'jimmy corrigan' is on my list of favourite books. i really like ware's drawing style and his use of bold outlines.

jimmy corrigan blew me away as being a thoroughly excellent post-modern novel quite apart from its being a graphic novel to boot. it deserved all the accolades it got.

so i was tremendously excited when i found that the local library had anticipated my request and already got 'the acme novelty library' in. hurrah!

the novelty library is a kind of annual, featuring a range of cartoons and all the usual ware graphical trappings that make his books so fascinating, and mean that his cartoons always take a lot longer to read than you thought they would. the novelty library is a brilliant example of graphical work.

if jimmy corrigan constantly verges on the tragic, then this book could be accused of wallowing in it. i must admit that i got a little depressed by the end of it. the main story that weaves through all of ware's cartoons (regardless of the characters) is about a little boy who got picked on at school then grew up to be disenchanted lonely adult.

maybe there is a high degree of authenticity in ware's work, but i can't help wishing that he would balance out the sadness a bit more. for me the balancing is in his beautiful drawing style, but at times i think that is overcome by the sheer weight of the tragedy.

i still think ware is a genius, but hope that his genius will be revealed more when he goes on to exhibit an ability to portray the hopeful, more beautiful aspects of life with the same accuracy as tragedy in future works.

This book is very entertaining, spend 3 hours in a row reading.

Read my review on the A.V. Club website.

Fun collection with some good stories and some mundane ones. Artwork is amazing!

Incredible!

I love all for this book

This story is very fantastic.

It makes no sense that this book should be so depressing. Each page is incredibly fresh and almost unfathomably intricate. This is the kind of book that seems to hold inspiring claims about the future of graphic novels and fiction in general. And yet...punchline after punchline is cynicism and emptiness, cynicism and emptiness. It's beautifully expressed, but it doesn't make sense without another side. Even two semi-uplifting comics amid the hundreds here would let me wrap my head around this. It just seems...contradictory. Like if Harry Potter would have lost and evil prevailed - it doesn't fit what's being set up stylistically. Now, it's the same style as "Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth," but it worked much better there because it was just a single story. Here, with dozens of characters and plots, it just comes across as incomplete. Chris Ware is constantly amazing, but the utter lack of joy in his work is extremely frustrating.

Rocket Sam, Big Tex and Rusty Brown had their moments. But the single pages collected here with Acme novelty adverts are non-stop genius. "Everyone You Know Likes Taking Narcotics." or "Who Made That Stain?" or "New Thing." Most readers will need a magnifying glass to read this. I could close with my own attempt at a Ware-style mock pull quote: "Less Depressing Than Jimmy Corrigan."

Chris Ware's work is nothing short of astounding. Each page takes you to a place of his choosing, so fully, each spare panel building up a sense of ennui, of a forlorn lonesome time. The jokes in this book cut you before you know you are bleeding. The artwork is masterful. The conversation deep. I can't say enough for the.... experience... of this book

2.5 stars. Depressing. Not really entertaining.

Bittersweet, sick, tear-your-heart-out, nihilistic, amazing satirical compilation of Ware's works. Must read. Although I do not recommend reading the entire book in one sitting.