Ex Libris

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 with 99 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 is 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, a comics adaptation of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style. His recent work includes the comic books Drawn Onward and Bridge. He has been living in Philadelphia since 2016.

Author: Matt Madden
Publisher: Uncivilized Books
Published: 11/23/2021
Pages: 120
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.65lbs
Size: 11.70h x 8.90w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781941250440

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/12/2021
Library Journal 08/01/2021 pg. 59
Foreword 08/26/2021

About the Author
Madden, Matt: - 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.