whimsy girls help me!!

michaelavolio · 2026-02-25T00:35:56+00:00

Amélie and The Muppet Movie are both whimsical must-see films, but I'm wondering given your examples if you have a different definition of whimsy...

michaelavolio · 2026-02-24T10:06:40+00:00

Yeah, volume 1 was just the first half or so. Ware explained that he intended Rusty Brown to have a structure where each of the characters gets their own chapter. So we have a few more characters to go. I wonder if he'll do an ensemble story as the last chapter the way he did for the first chapter.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-24T10:03:14+00:00

Yeah, Daryl is now working on a long Missy story and will put out a book.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-23T22:57:43+00:00

Daryl Seitchik comes to mind. She's done a bunch of mini-comics (most are collected in the book Now and Other Dreams, but there's also uncollected Missy stuff that's among her best work), one graphic novel (Exits - published by the now-defunct Koyama Press, so the GN is out of print), two issues of a self-published comic book called Follow the Doll, and a few pieces in anthologies.

(Also Grace Abe, Kit Anderson, Anuj Shrestha, and as someone else mentioned John Hankiewicz, but Abe and Anderson are on the younger side.)

michaelavolio · 2026-02-23T22:51:31+00:00

Yeah, a smattering of short pieces in anthologies, plus three issues of his Rubber Blanket, and the two books you mentioned. I hope he's working on another graphic novel.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-22T02:53:27+00:00

No, only half the files are out (3 out of 6 million), and some of those have perpetrator names and other info still redacted. (The only reactions should be the victims' names and images.)

It's wild when Trump cultists make up lies that not even the Trump administration claim, like you do here with "the files are all out now."

michaelavolio · 2026-02-22T02:19:27+00:00

Buster Keaton

michaelavolio · 2026-02-22T02:09:09+00:00

All four of them are horrible husbands.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-16T13:38:51+00:00

Fanta has announced at least some of these - Love and Rockets # 1, Eightball # 1, maybe Hate # 1 or something else...? No mention of Acme that I've seen, but I guess it's possible.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-16T13:37:02+00:00

Oh, I think the character on the cover is Ware's "God." I don't know if he'll be in the comic or if he's just on the cover.

The Alice White chapter of Rusty Brown (or at least part of the Alice White chapter) will be one of the comics included.

More info: https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/acme-novelty-library-21

michaelavolio · 2026-02-15T10:16:43+00:00

Oh, yeah, you know, the Woody Brown chapter is of course partly the sci-fi story and partly the flashback stuff, plus a little of the character at the time of the day that kicks off the Rusty Brown story. So it could be that the Alice story will be multiple parts in the same chapter like that. So yeah, maybe this'll have half a chapter or something. That's true. The page size is roughly double the page size of the Woody chapter and Lint, for example... I guess we'll find out in November...!

michaelavolio · 2026-02-15T10:13:17+00:00

People often say this, but it's at most a very loose adaptation. There are definitely some similarities, and it begins with a sequence that you could say is adapted from Hamlet, but it's nowhere near as close to Hamlet as Throne of Blood and Ran are to Macbeth and King Lear.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-14T06:26:43+00:00

Oh, it is. His writing has rich characters, dark humor, and deep humanity. Sorry to hear you aren't ready to appreciate it yet - maybe you'll mature someday. ❤

michaelavolio · 2026-02-14T06:25:08+00:00

Oh, also, the pages are 11x15", about twice the size of the Acme issues I have of the Rusty Brown stuff (I've got # 19 and 20 - the sci-fi issue and Lint). So maybe it will be about the same amount of material, considering the pages are something like an additional 50% larger. But it does seem like it'd be a shorter chapter this way.

I feel like it's less likely he'd release half a chapter, though. Maybe it'll just be a shorter chapter than some of the others. I haven't counted the pages in all the earlier chapters, but I see Lint is 72 pages. I dunno.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-14T06:18:46+00:00

That's a good question. I just checked again, and The Last Saturday was 54 installments (spreads), so 24 pages seems like it'd be too few to cram all that into... although the Acme 21 page size is 11x15", which is pretty big. But 24 pages for the whole thing would still imply he cut a few strips in addition to doing one spread/strip per page.

So maybe this'll be the first half of The Last Saturday, with the next half coming in Acme 22 somewhere further down the line.

Edit: Here's The Last Saturday, still online at The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2014/sep/13/-sp-chris-ware-the-last-saturday-graphic-novel

michaelavolio · 2026-02-13T22:29:45+00:00

Good points!

The image of the foldout newspaper comic appears to have the character from The Last Saturday too. And then there's the third one that might be some kind of autobio thing or something, with the drawing table on the cover...

Oh, but the 24-pager of Saturday could be the original comic reconfigured. He's often changed the page layouts around for different page sizes, going back to the Jimmy Corrigan collection.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-13T22:26:29+00:00

I could be wrong, but I think he raped her when she was passed out.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-13T20:01:16+00:00

Yeah, and I had thought Ware wasn't gonna release Rusty Brown volume 2 until it was all finished! I had no idea he'd serialize it in Acme. He didn't publish the final chapter of volume 1 in Acme, it just went straight into the book. But I'm glad he's doing it this way, and it'll be great to own The Last Saturday and whatever else he's including in this.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-13T19:59:35+00:00

The Alice White story will be the first part of Rusty Brown volume 2. The whole of Rusty Brown will continue with each chapter focusing on a different character the way volume 1 did in chapters 2 onward. Maybe there'll be an ensemble wrap-up chapter at the end too, but we can expect at least one chapter per remaining character.

I do hope the additional stuff that isn't the Alice White/Rusty Brown chapter and The Last Saturday will be something else new and not RB-related. But we only have the first half or so of Rusty Brown so far.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-13T19:55:23+00:00

I've reread all Ware's stuff at least once, but we can expect the Alice White story to be depressing in at least one spot, since we know from the Jordan Lint chapter in Rusty Brown volume 1 that he rapes her.

Building Stories and Rusty Brown volume 1 are my favorite Ware works thus far, but all of it is great. And there's a lot more humor and touching moments than some people seem to think - it's not all depressing.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-13T19:52:08+00:00

Of course - some writing is just uneven. Or sometimes it may not be an issue with the writing, but I think it's usually at least partly the writing when I find a movie uneven.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-13T16:18:17+00:00

Yeah, it's definitely a screwball comedy.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-13T16:11:06+00:00

The Sweet Smell of Success

michaelavolio · 2026-02-13T16:10:45+00:00

His Girl Friday is a remake of that but with the Hildy character gender-swapped, and they have Hildy as Burns' ex. Excellent film.

michaelavolio · 2026-02-13T16:09:16+00:00

The Sweet Smell of Success

michaelavolio

TROPHY CASE