The Acme Novelty Datebook by Chris Ware: review

Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Datebook Volume Three — Chris Ware's *Acme Novelty Datebook Volume Three*

(Image credit: Chris Ware / Drawn & Quarterly)

Lovers of the book-maker’s art should be eternally grateful to the artist, illustrator and writer Chris Ware, who has ensured that his meticulously drawn work always gets the print presentation it deserves. Ware has created over 30 covers for The New Yorker, as well as written, drawn and inked, precise but emotive graphic novels like Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (2001) and the award-winning Building Stories (Pantheon, 2012).

Self portrait by Chris Ware — Self-portrait by Chris Ware, *Acme Novelty Datebook Volume Three*

The latter consisted of a number of different-sized booklets with different bindings and paper types, all assembled in a large box and designed to give the reader a unique approach to the lives chronicled within. Ware’s singular vision and beautiful colour and line work relishes the power of print. On the page, his work arrives fully formed without any hint of hesitation.

A page from the Acme Novelty Datebook Volume Three — A page from the *Acme Novelty Datebook Volume Three*

New from Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly is this, the third and final volume in Ware’s assemblage of sketchbooks, page plans and notations. The Acme Novelty Datebook: Volume Three covers the years 2002 to 2023, with over 200 pages of artwork that goes beyond Ware's well-known style and encompasses pen portraits, private comic strips and works in progress. It provides a much sought-after insight into the artist's mind.

Some indication of that mind and how it works comes from the blurb: ‘After over 15 years’ deferral, delay and dawdling, the ink-and-paper cheerleader FC Ware finally succumbs to imaginary public pressure by concluding his tiresome experiment in reader trust with the third and final volume of secret notebooks and sketches spanning over 37 years of bus rides, airport delays and telephone hold music.’

At a time when art 'appreciation' seems to be relegated to hastily liked Instagram posts that are rarely revisited, having Ware’s unique handicraft presented in a handsome physical hardback volume feels like a real luxury. As well as a love of display art, old etchings and graphic design, Ware discovers characters, somehow managing to find the inner lives of his subjects, even if these flights of fancy are cut from whole cloth.

It’s all part of the process. As he says, ‘artisanal rewritings of personal conflict are scattered throughout comic strips unconsciously revealing private hostilities and unflattering portraits of public transportation riders, the whole carefully cleansed of any impugnable or litigious tracery’.

A slip case edition of all three volumes is also available — A slip-case edition of all three volumes is also available

Chris Ware, The Acme Novelty Datebook: Volume Three, $49.95. A slipcase edition of all three volumes is available for $149.95, DrawnandQuarterly.com, @DrawnandQuarterly

Also available from Amazon and Waterstones

Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.