THROUGHOUT THE '80S, while mainstream comic books woke
up to the fact that their audience was composed largely of geeky
boys who would dish out two bucks for glossy drawings of blood
spattered women in tight leather outfits, Chris Ware was pursuing
a different course in his strip for Chicago's equivalent of the
Tucson Weekly. Indeed, Mr. Ware seems to have missed the
trends of the '80s, not to mention the '70s, '60s and much of
the '50s, completely. His work, now reprinted in a series of nefariously
oversized comics called the Acme Novelty Library, is reminiscent
of the style of 1940s newspaper strip, Bringing Up Father. However,
the stories tell the tales of the unseen moments that movies and
comics always skip: things like Superman laughing as a church
burns. Or a lone space explorer stopping on a distant asteroid
to graffiti the word "fuck" on a boulder. Or doleful
Jimmy Corrigan, a middle-aged mailroom worker who imagines himself
the smartest kid on Earth, counting down the new year by himself
in an empty apartment. It's hard to convey how simultaneously
sad and funny his work is: The stories read like the dreams of
an abused child, where great plans of hope and heroism always
collide with humiliating reality. In between the drawings are
strange ads and articles from a nightmare version of a mid-century
magazine for the alienated middle class, with stories that read
like the writings of Bob Dornaní private demons. This is
one of the best things on your local comic book stores shelves.
If only there were a little more competition.
THROUGHOUT THE '80S, while mainstream comic books woke
up to the fact that their audience was composed largely of geeky
boys who would dish out two bucks for glossy drawings of blood
spattered women in tight leather outfits, Chris Ware was pursuing
a different course in his strip for Chicago's equivalent of the
Tucson Weekly. Indeed, Mr. Ware seems to have missed the
trends of the '80s, not to mention the '70s, '60s and much of
the '50s, completely. His work, now reprinted in a series of nefariously
oversized comics called the Acme Novelty Library, is reminiscent
of the style of 1940s newspaper strip, Bringing Up Father. However,
the stories tell the tales of the unseen moments that movies and
comics always skip: things like Superman laughing as a church
burns. Or a lone space explorer stopping on a distant asteroid
to graffiti the word "fuck" on a boulder. Or doleful
Jimmy Corrigan, a middle-aged mailroom worker who imagines himself
the smartest kid on Earth, counting down the 