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Pages 96–99
November 1994

Excerpt:

"In addition to comix, Ware makes wonderful and strange objects, some with tie-ins to the strip. They include a large painting/construction incorporating only slightly narrative panels of God, and tiny sculptural renditions of his version of Krazy Kat and Ignatz."

"A recent show at Chicagos Ten in One gallery featured the Acme Book Dispenser, Ware's wooden vending machine that dispenses tiny comic books. Instead of coins, the fee is a house key that is not returned. Quimby the Dancing Mouse, a two-headed mechanized mouse contraption, relates to a character found in Wares cartoons. Another machine, Sparky the Singing Cat, is a box containing a stitched together, rather grotesque head of a black cat. When a crank handle is turned, Ware's home-engineered gearing system runs the face through a series of contortions - and the cat sings goodbye to his grandmother, whom he won't be seeing anymore."

"The boxes, complete with etched metal labels, faded paper serial number tags, and point-of-purchase displays, are so finely crafted, and the antiquing effects so accurate, that many viewers are convinced they are turn-of-the-century curios. They are, however, artifacts from Chris Wares alternative world. A world that can be viewed one week at a time in his comics - just as fast as its created from the headquarters of the Acme Novelty Company."

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