Word: wared
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...Chris Ware's "Acme Novelty Datebook...
...capriciousness of love, the sadness of losing loved ones and the desire for their return become the clear themes investigated by the little mouse. Ware explains why in the introduction: The first half of the book comes from a time when his beloved grandmother fell ill and passed away within a year. The second half of the book's work appeared when Ware left most of his connections behind and moved to Chicago. "During [my grandmother's] steady decline," Ware writes, "I was only able to draw stories of my increasingly littler mouse wandering, alone, through a large, unoccupied house...
Form has always been Ware's forte and "Quimby the Mouse" shows off some of his earliest experiments with it. Ware may be our most committed creator of comix as art. For one thing, he demands high production values for his books. The "Quimby" book must be the most gorgeous graphic novel ever published. It has gold ink embossed in the hardcover, with thick paper and an exquisite mix of color and black and white strips. The "Date Book" likewise has come out as a hardcover with top-notch production, including a placeholder ribbon. A tantalizing sketchbook page from...
...self-portrait from Chris Ware's sketchbook...
...into the author's personal sensibilities. Sex, self-loathing, loneliness and a sentimental yearning for the past the past fills the pages, often in full color. Preliminary layouts for later polished pieces show up, as do near-perfectly formed strips that have never been seen before. Any artist or Ware aficionado will find it extremely interesting, though the uninitiated may be somewhat baffled by it. Frankly, this criticism extends to Ware's finished work as well, including "Quimby the Mouse." It takes a very high comix-reading level to appreciate Ware's more ambitious layouts...