Building Stories

No es un libro, es una caja llena de comics en distintos formatos, desde una tira plegable hasta un verdadero "broadsheet". Fragmentos de una vida y de algunos personajes que alguna vez la rodearon, en el orden que los vaya sacando de la caja y en el estilo inconfundible de Chris Ware: cómo deprimirte en perspectiva isométrica y colores planos. Qué maravilla de uso del medio, cuántas horas de lectura y contemplación.

Thoroughly depressing, but quite brilliant graphic novel, produced as a collection of small books, newspapers, folded strips of paper, etc. There are no instructions on how to read all of this (I did it from small to large). A slices of life story with a triple pun on the title; the building itself is a character. Includes the story of Branford bee, the greatest bee in the world, and an edition of the Bee times with "God save the queen" in the header. I think the only other graphic novels I had read were Art Spiegleman's Maus I and II, but now I am intrigued...

Completely captivating and almost completely cheerless, Building Stories is so uniquely and beautifully put together that it's hard to knock it too much for its hopelessness. I even almost want to add a fifth star.

I read from smallest to largest piece, went back and read the last page or few panels of each and feel like there really was no wrong way to go about tackling it. A couple of the pieces might be recommended as the anchor solely for their ability to leave you on a higher note, but just barely.

I'm eager to see this match up against any of the more traditional novels of the Tournament of Books in March. It's hard to predict.

The line "I fertilized the Queen and kept my endophallus" might be the best I've read all year. In fact, anything concerning Branford, The Best Bee in the World is sheer joy. The rest of the book/collection/box of comics is good as well, although I had the same problem that I often have when reading comics: my vision is so terrible that to read much of the little writing in some of the panels, I have to hold the book/pamphlet/newspaper inches away from my face.