BOOK REPORT: illustrations may be naked

Imagine you are really good at drawing and also really good at capturing the essence of things like unrealized dreams, debilitating self-consciousness, awkward sex, existential honeybees & missing limbs. And then imagine you decided to make an unconventional graphic novel consisting of 14 separate narrative components, all of which told a different part of a big story. And then imagine you titled it 'Building Stories,' partially because the stories center on a single building in Chicago, partially because the reader must literally build the story out of the different components. And then imagine your name was Chris Ware and that yours truly, Fristine Klaherty read it.

I don't want to spoil the fun by giving too much away, but basically my friend came over to my apartment last week with a big ass box & was like I'VE BEEN WAITING 10 YEARS FOR THIS READ IT. Which I did that day. And despite the fact that I don't normally partake of graphic novels (illustration/text combos are like canola oil & poland spring in my brain), I truly thought it was one of the most original & strangely profound things I've encountered in a while.

Basically, happiness is like a slippery football & Chris Ware is awesome.