Reviews

99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style by Matt Madden

isayouthere's review against another edition

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funny informative inspiring lighthearted

4.0

bryanzk's review against another edition

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4.0

some of them are inspiring

magnetgrrl's review against another edition

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3.0

Worth a quick glance. Maybe useful if you've never heard of the 99 Exercises in Style.... Seeing comic interpretations of them was interesting, but not groundbreaking or anything. I was actually surprised at the overall narrative style of most of them - I mean the whole point of doing the 99 exercises in the language of comics is to explore the language of comics. Clearly we have a long way to go.

madwimmin's review against another edition

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funny informative fast-paced

5.0

mschlat's review against another edition

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4.0

Madden starts with a simple, almost banal, comics page that portrays him getting up from his desk, telling his wife what time it is, walking to the fridge, and then forgetting what he wanted. And then, he repeats that page 99 times in different styles. Sometimes he uses a different genre (superhero, manga, ...), sometimes he does a pastiche (Krazy Kat or Little Nemo in Slumberland), but often the changes are more formal (changes in perspective, panel type, or art style). My favorite page is called "Inventory" and just displays, in each panel, the most relevant features of the original page (e.g., a picture of a desk). There is no narrative - even the letters used in the original page are presented in alphabetic order here - but you still get some gist of the original scenario.

It's a quick read with testament after testament to Madden's skills in presenting comics history. It's also quite funny, not so much because of obvious laugh lines, but because you are constantly and often joyfully surprised by the changes. Aside from one small quibble (why did we need an upskirt image on the manga page?), I liked this a lot.

huckleberryrk's review against another edition

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funny informative fast-paced

4.0

infinitelibrary's review against another edition

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3.0

pretty useful and funny!

kwansbff's review against another edition

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fast-paced

4.0

juultjepanda's review

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5.0

but what

thefiercecat's review against another edition

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3.0

99 exercices de style est un roman graphique. L'auteur a pris une situation anodine du quotidien, ici, se levé pour aller chercher quelque chose dans le frigo et une fois arrivé devant, ne plus se souvenir ce qu'on venait chercher, et a décliné cette situation en 99 planches différents en se basant sur la planche de base (la matrice). C'est vraiment une BD hors du commun, parfois décalée, parfois sous forme de cahier de vacances (jeux des différences), et qui permet de découvrir pleins de style de dessin différents (manga par exemple) et de retrouver des planches dans le style de dessinateur plus connu (Tintin ou Mickey Mouse par exemple).
Bon, il n'est pas faux que parfois, je n'ai pas vraiment compris ce que Matt Madden a cherché à faire ou il m'est arrivé de ne même plus vraiment trouvé le rapport avec la matrice. Et c'est ce que je trouverais de négatif dans ce roman graphique.
Les petits notes à la fin sont assez intéressantes pour en apprendre un peu plus sur certains styles et dessinateurs dont s'est inspiré Matt Madden. Cependant, elles n'expliquent pas toujours les planches que je n'ai pas vraiment comprises. Mais bon, il faut laisser parler son imagination, je suppose.
À savoir que cette bande dessinée fait explicitement référence à Exercices de style de Raymond Queneau, qui reprenait lui aussi une même scène pour la déclinée en 99 variations stylistiques.

Je le recommande vivement.
4,5/5.