Nichole S.
Customer Service Representative
Nichole is from the little village of Orient, Ohio. She's an illustrator/comic-drawer who spends her time spilling ink everywhere, listening to the Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast, and watching movies on Netflix. She can often be found in the Natural History Museum or in her kitchen waiting for her tea to brew. You can look at her illustrations here.
Would you like other recommendations? Email me at staff+nichole@strandbooks.com
Latest Review
Building Stories
I'm not sure if it's possible to have a bad time reading Chris Ware's newest book, Building Stories. Opening the book reminds me of a board game - it comes packaged in a big box, with a lot of little pieces inside. Once you unwrap everything, you're greeted with a collection of Ware's work from the past 10 years. If you're familiar with his work, you may even recognize a few of the comics (I know I did). Inside the box are a bunch of surprises: longer stories in hardcover books, fold out newspapers (featuring the cutest character, Branford - The Best Bee in the World), and short little pamphlets.
First, just take everything out and spread it all over the floor of your apartment/house/hotel and stare at it for a few minutes. Maybe there's a better way of taking it all in, but this is the funnest.
Next, don't be scared! It's easy to get overwhelmed by Chris Ware's work - he doesn't really lay his comics out traditionally. This, combined with so many options, makes it hard to tell where you should start. After paging through a few, I decided to settle down with the Building's own journal - laid out like a "Little Golden Book". In my opinion, it's best just to dive right in and let yourself be guided by the artist's design skills. Don't worry about where your eye is going to go next, because Ware is able to direct you through the weaving pictures seamlessly.
You should also be prepared to get totally sucked into this world. Every panel and page has a feeling to it that almost jumps out of the book. When I was reading the Building's journal, I couldn't believe that my heart was hurting for it. It was so sad! Even though there's an intense loneliness to be felt while reading the stories, you'll also catch yourself laughing. And sometimes, you'll notice that you aren't even reading at all and are just admiring the drawing and design. I feel like there are a lot of hours to be spent with this book (and a lot of hours spent re-visiting it as well). Whether or not you are interested in comics, design, or even writing, I suggest you take a peek at Building Stories. Maybe you'll discover (like I did) that one of your new favorite books isn't really even a book at all.
Building Stories
