The Acme Novelty Library

    (Fantagraphics, 1993-2008)
™ and ©1993 Chris Ware

(From The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide)

Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library is an astounding publication, presenting comics that engage the intellect, and managing from the first issue to do so in an accessible manner, thus succeeding where Raw failed. It’s also arguably the first comic to move the medium forward since the undergrounds of the 1960s, yet keeps a clear eye on the past. Ware employs a regular cast including an archaic representation of a robot, an aged super-hero archetype (sometimes presented as God), a hapless rural character dominated by his father, and Jimmy Corrigan, the smartest kid on Earth. Seen as child, adult and old man, the appellation is a cruelly capricious label, as Corrigan’s strip, described in #5 as “an attempt to accurately counterfeit the mechanism of mundanity’, portrays him as the loneliest and most pitiful person seen in comics. Occupying a spartanly furnished apartment, dreaming of dating his co-workers, his only social interaction is frequent phone calls from his mother. Ware’s very dark humor puts his character through the grinder and an optimistic childhood becomes a lonely adult life punctuated by brief bursts of aspiration, always unfulfilled. The very epitome of the person who’s always worse off than you are, Corrigan’s incessantly depressed existence and hangdog face can’t help but induce laughter. Quimby The Mouse is also remarkable, a 1930s-style cartoon mouse going about his business in an enormous series of intricate, minute panels, encompassed within a far larger design. Echoing the tomfoolery of Krazy Kat, Quimby’s existence is also solitary and troublesome, and is the focus of issues #2 and #4. This all makes Acme Novelty Library sound depressing, when in fact it’s riotously funny if you’re of a cruel-humored disposition.

Ware’s art is astounding. With what is on the surface a clear and simple line, his ability to portray a full range of emotions within this style is remarkable, and his frequent bleak land-and cityscapes, intended to convey isolation, are surprisingly edifying. His skill as a designer is even more impressive, with each issue meticulously pieced together and living up to the novelty aspect of the title. Only the first resembles the traditional comic format. Issues #2 and #4 are each over a foot high, with #7 standing a full 18 inches, while Jimmy Corrigan’s reconciliation with his father in #5 and #6 is presented in two small pocket-sized landscape editions. Issue #3 is a slightly larger portrait variation.

The comics are rounded out with ludicrously formally phrased (and very funny) nonsensical articles and fake ads, and intricately designed cut-out models of the type that might have been presented had there been comics in the Victorian era. This would be mere whimsical window-dressing elsewhere, but the archaic and convoluted language and formality of address bestow a cohesive substance to the entire package. Collections would prove troublesome, and are superfluous when each innovatively designed issue stands alone as a worthy artifact. ~FP

		Notes	Writer	Artist
	#1 Date:  12/1/1993 Cover Price:  $3.50 NM Guide:  $59.00 No copies available		Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#1 (2nd printing) Date:  12/1/1995 Cover Price:  $3.95 NM Guide:  $3.95 No copies available	Jimmy Corrigan	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#1 (3rd printing) Date:  4/1/1998 Cover Price:  $5.50 NM Guide:  $32.00 1 copy available for $39.99	1st Appearance of Jimmy Corrigan; Winter 1993	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#2 Date:  7/1/1994 Cover Price:  $3.95 NM Guide:  $28.00 No copies available	Quimby the Mouse	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#2 (2nd printing) Date:  6/1/1995 Cover Price:  $4.95 NM Guide:  $34.00 No copies available	Quimby the Mouse	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#2 (3rd printing) Date:  12/1/1996 Cover Price:  $4.95 NM Guide:  $5.00 No copies available	Quimby the Mouse	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#3 Date:  9/1/1994 Cover Price:  $3.95 NM Guide:  $10.50 1 copy available for $29.99	Blind Man	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#3 (3rd printing) Date:  12/1/1996 Cover Price:  $3.95 NM Guide:  $3.95 1 copy available for $29.99	Blind Man	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#3 (5th printing) Date:  Cover Price:  $3.95 NM Guide:  $25.00 No copies available	5th printing; Blind Man; ca. Spring 2001	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#4 Date:  12/1/1994 Cover Price:  $4.95 NM Guide:  $17.00 No copies available	Sparky’s Best Comics and Stories	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#4 (2nd printing) Date:  Cover Price:  $4.95 NM Guide:  $5.00 No copies available		Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#5 Date:  3/1/1995 Cover Price:  $3.95 NM Guide:  $18.00 No copies available	Jimmy Corrigan	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#6 Date:  9/1/1995 Cover Price:  $3.95 NM Guide:  $21.00 1 copy available for $9.95	Jimmy Corrigan	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#7 Date:  7/1/1996 Cover Price:  $6.95 NM Guide:  $7.00 No copies available	Book of Jokes	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#8 Date:  12/1/1996 Cover Price:  $4.75 NM Guide:  $12.00 No copies available	Jimmy Corrigan	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#9 Date:  12/1/1997 Cover Price:  $4.50 NM Guide:  $6.50 No copies available	Jimmy Corrigan	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#10 Date:  3/1/1998 Cover Price:  $4.95 NM Guide:  $19.00 No copies available	Jimmy Corrigan	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#11 Date:  9/1/1998 Cover Price:  $4.50 NM Guide:  $9.50 No copies available	Jimmy Corrigan	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#12 Date:  3/1/1999 Cover Price:  $4.50 NM Guide:  $16.00 1 copy available for $12.99	Jimmy Corrigan	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#13 Date:  9/1/1999 Cover Price:  $10.95 NM Guide:  $15.00 No copies available		Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#14 Date:  9/1/1999 Cover Price:  $10.95 NM Guide:  $15.00 No copies available	Jimmy Corrigan	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#15 Date:  Cover Price:  $10.95 NM Guide:  $12.00 No copies available		Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#16 Date:  1/1/2006 Cover Price:  $15.95 NM Guide:  $16.00 No copies available	Hardcover; Rusty Brown	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#16 Hardcover Date:  1/1/2006 Cover Price:  $15.95 NM Guide:  $225.00 1 copy available for $79.99	Rusty Brown	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#17 Hardcover Date:  12/1/2006 Cover Price:  $16.95 NM Guide:  $16.95 1 copy available for $34.99	Rusty Brown	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#18 Date:  Cover Price:  $15.95 NM Guide:  $16.00 No copies available		Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#18 Hardcover Date:  1/1/2007 Cover Price:  $17.95 NM Guide:  $17.95 No copies available		Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#18.5 Date:  11/1/2008 Cover Price:  $23.95 NM Guide:  $23.95 No copies available		Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#19 Date:  1/1/2007 Cover Price:  $32.00 NM Guide:  $32.00 No copies available	Cardstock portfolio. Thanksgiving: “Lower East Side”version.	Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#20 Date:  Cover Price:  $15.95 NM Guide:  $16.00 No copies available		Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	#20 Hardcover Date:  10/1/2008 Cover Price:  $23.95 NM Guide:  $16.00 No copies available		Chris Ware	Chris Ware
	Book #4 Date:  Cover Price:  $27.50 NM Guide:  $8.00 1 copy available for $8.00	Oversized, hardcover	Chris Ware	Chris Ware