Ex Libris
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Ex Libris revolves around a character trapped in a room with nothing but a futon and a bookcase full of comics. As they peruse covers, read stories and fragments of stories, they begin to suspect that the comics contain hidden messages and... a threat. Fiction and reality blur; sanity and madness become increasingly intertwined as the reader becomes convinced the key to their predicament is to be found between the panels of the strange books. With a dizzying array of inventive visual and narrative styles,Ex Libris continues the line of exploration and play that Madden initiated with99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style. Ex Libris is a tribute to the meta-fictional tradition of writers like Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Vladimir Nabokov, and Italo Calvino (whose novel,If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, was the inspiration).
MATT MADDEN (NYC 1968) is a cartoonist, teacher, and translator. His best-known book is99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, a comics adaptation of Raymond Queneau'sExercises in Style. His recent work includes the comic booksDrawn Onward andBridge. He has been living in Philadelphia since 2016.
About this Author
Matt Madden is a cartoonist who has also taught in art schools around the world. His best-known book is 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style (Penguin), a comics adaptation of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style which led to his initiation into Oubapo, The Workshop for Potential Comics, in 2005. In 2013 he was named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. He has also done translations from the French and Spanish, including Aristophane's The Zabîme Sisters (First Second) and Edmond Baudoin's Piero (New York Review Comics). He wrote two comics textbooks in collaboration with his wife, Jessica Abel, and the couple were series editors for The Best American Comics from Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt for six years. From 2012 to 2016, he and his family did a four-year residency in Angoulême, France at La Maison des auteurs. They are currently living in Philadelphia where he is doing translations and finishing up his new comic, Ex Libris, when he's not looking after his kids or playing guitar. You'll find more at www.mattmadden.com.
Reviews
"Madden calls attention brilliantly to the medium's building blocks--elements like panel borders and sound effects--in a kind of comics theory course with the punch line of the protagonist declaring that "drawings have a greater power than words to get under your skin." This endlessly inventive work is a metafictional master class in comics."--Publishers Weekly; Starred Review
"Madden displays a keen mastery of numerous visual and narrative styles. A formally inventive, deeply emotional tale, reminiscent ofItalo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler..."--Library Journal
"This elegant showcase of graphic storytelling displays deep knowledge of the language of comics. The book's metafictional forays always serve the unnamed reader's tale, too; the subtle build of the mood and suspense around them results in a dazzling graphic novel."--Foreword Reviews; Starred Review
Praise for99 Ways to Tell A Story:
"A fascinating analysis of and a treatise, of sorts, on language in comics." --Steven Heller, designer and author
"Balances postmodern irony with genuine invention and amusement." --The Guardian
"There's a new discovery on every page, making this one of the most thrilling and surprising graphic novels around."--Comics Worth Reading
"Astonishingly, for a book that is above all else repetitive, it never gets boring. Even the obvious is interesting, and Madden also comes up with a lot of great stuff, ways of seeing that might not have occurred to the reader. Fantastic and thought-provoking fun. Highly recommended."--The Complete Review
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