The Acme Novelty Library #13
Ratings28
Average rating4
Epic. The pinnacle of graphic novel achievement thus far. Hundreds of pages of crisp, beautiful, innovative graphics telling a simple story of a loser's life damn near second-by-second. Visually stunning.
Very happy to be done with this. I acknowledge that it's a well executed graphic novel but it's so depressing.
As the note near the back explains, the author is obviously working out some issues about his own absent father. Not autobiographical, but it does share similarities with most graphic memoirs I've read, in that while I can see it as a cathartic experience for the writer, it doesn't feel as complete or useful an experience to the reader.
Deliberately vacillates between disturbing and miserable, all with unrelenting undercurrent of bored uncomfortableness.
Get flashes of an expansive imagination, I just personally wish it hadn't been put in service to create this.
Similarly, art style goes from competent to extraordinary depending on whether the characters' life or fantasies or focused on, but that makes the majority of the visuals a bummer or offputting.
⚠️Racism, misogyny, child abuse