A review by jeffhall
The Acme Novelty Library #17 by Chris Ware

4.0

A really beautiful book, both in terms of Ware's beautiful drawings and in terms of the actual book itself - the front cover is an etched representation of images familiar from any American childhood in the late twentieth century. The book almost has the physical feel of a school library volume from that era, and the story lives up to that unusual starting point. As always, Ware is a master at weaving a tale that is simultaneously melancholy, beautiful, and astonishingly honest. It's hard to say enough good things about The ACME Novelty Library #17 - if graphic novels are one of the most rewarding segments of the art world in the early twenty-first century, then Chris Ware deserves a lot of the credit for that fact, and this volume amply demonstrates why.