Lo físicamente incómodas (o incluso prácticamente imposibles) de leer que son algunas partes de este libro por su formato deberían casi considerarse un acto terrorista. Ahora bien, cuando se pone, las historias son una maravilla.

I find it a bit difficult to rate this book.

This is just pretty to have. The hardcover version is huge. It will not fit into your regular bookshelf. LOL. But it gives a good idea of Chris Ware's gobsmacking art. There's no one story as on Jimmy Corrigan. It's little bits here and there and some loosely related panels. Love it. Love it. Should've gotten Quimby The Mouse too but these pockets are not really that deep.

As you know, Chris Ware is a visual genius. I lack the attention span to just get lost in most of his "Acme Novelty Library" out-put, but I think that is more my failing than his; still, I love gazing at everything he does and marveling at his strange, brilliant brain.

If you're only gonna own one Chris Ware, it should probably be this one. But, you really should own more than one Chris Ware. You should have ALL the ones listed on my goodreads list.. they're awesome .. they feed the soul... they lighten the mind .. they will get you laid.. they will get you into the pearly gates. Seriouly, get them, and show them to company when they come over.. they won't believe they've never heard of him.

There's a little bit of Ware's Rusty Brown and Chalky White in all of us. Well, there's a little bit of both of them in me, anyway. And then there's a part of me unlike them who desperately wants to be like them, even though they are at times shallow and pathetic characters. Let me explain employing single-word transitions in the vein of Ware's work:

Most people dream about riches and fame. I've been there. I used to want to be a rock star when I was 14. Then my father told me that the number of people who want to be rock stars could hold hands and circle the world twice, and achieving my dream would be impossible. So I started collecting comics and soliciting obscure bands for signed postcards . . . then my house burned down and I lost everything. As a result, I'm convinced during occasional bouts of delusion that Chris Ware was writing my life back then.

AND

There used to be a joke among the band kids back in high school that if you can't play an instrument they give you two sticks and you play drums. If you can't play drums they take one stick away and make you a conductor. The same thing applies to writing. If you can't write professionally, you teach others how to write. You become a glorified conductor. So now I have a job teaching writing. Don't get me wrong, I love it. But the Rusty Brown in me, or the Rusty Brown that isn't in me perhaps, wishes he could just sit around and collect old cereal boxes with his parents' social security money. Part of me wishes I could live in the past. Not my own past, but a past beyond this lifetime, a past glorified in film and other media that harbors no negative connotations for me. It is this wish that makes me feel nostalgia for history I was never a part of.

SO

If you have ever felt this way, then you can rest comfortably knowing that Chris Ware brings this history to us through his work. You open this book and suddenly you're transported to this strange hybrid of modernity and the golden age of comics. The artistic rendering of the fake comic ads quenches that thirst for the past we were never a part of, and the elements of parody in the accompanying writing allows us to laugh at ourselves.

CONSEQUENTLY

This isn't just a comic. This is therapy for the disillusioned, for those who have lost hope of achieving their dreams, whether those dreams be of success or failure. If I had become what I thought I'd become when I was a teenager (Rusty Brown), rather than what I had hoped to become (a writer), I think I'd read this book every day, surrounded by a pile of generic cola cans and fast food wrappers. And I think, after reading, I'd probably believe for a short while that life wasn't all that bad. Ware's book would reinforce my negative outlook on the world, and I'd be happy I never took a leap of faith . . . because I'd probably just end up like Mr. Brown, trying to stuff mangled Barbie dolls under someone's door in a desperate attempt to establish rapport with them.

BUT

I didn't become what I thought I'd be. I became, for the most part, what I had hoped to become. Sure, they took one of my sticks away, but I'm comfortable and happy. And when responsibility begins to bog me down, I flip through this book and think about what it would be like on the other side, if I had become Rusty Brown, or even Chalky White. I'm glad to be a visitor in passing rather than a full-time inhabitant, and I have Ware to thank for the opportunity to explore what I could have become from a safe distance.

Gorgeous and very smart.

Gorgeous design and execution, smart and funny, but ultimately too depressing to spend the time on. By the end of nearly every page, you feel like you want to jump off a building -- much like Ware's own characters. A little of this goes a _really_ long way.

Burada buçuklu puan verebilmemiz lazım. 3 puan ile 4 puan arasında öylesine kararsız kaldım ki.. daha önce de benzer kararsızlıklar çok yaşadım o nedenle buçuklu puan istiyoruz efendim. En doğal hakkımızdır, yürütmeyin şimdi ankaradan, konyadan... :)
Chris Ware'in bu eserini beğenmiş olanlar var yazdıklarımı takip eden değerli arkadaşlar bu türde daha önce çok beğendiğim eserler olduğunu biliyor, onların yanında buçuklu şekilde geride kalıyor. EN büyük handikapı da mikro ölçekli çizimler. Okuma gözlüğüm bile yetişmedi, bir lup lazımdı muhakkak, eh sahil kenarlarına taşımıyoruz öyle şeyler.
Unutmadan bu eseri Best Art Comics 2010s seçkisi bağlamında okudum. Bu seçkideki diğer okumalarım devam etmekte. Peyderpey burada paylaşacağım sevgili okur..

If you really, really want to delve into the depths of sadness and loneliness, this is a good place dig. Holy crap is it ever sad!

Like Ware's other books, the detail in this one is nothing short of incredible. A variety of bitterly ironic comics and mock advertisements explore rejection, misery, and the futility of life in general. I enjoyed it quite a bit, even if Ware's tiny writing makes my already-weak eyes feel even worse. Someday I'm gonna need Large Type comic books. Now get offa my lawn!

Gorgeously designed, squint-inducing microcomix in tiny type. A work of depressing genius, but a pain in the ass to read.