Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A series of engrossing one page comics that tells the same story ninety nine different ways Matt Madden's 99 Ways to Tell a Story is a series of one-page comics that tell the same story in a variety of ways

Inspired by Raymond Queneau's 1947 work of the same title, which told a simple story in ninety-nine different styles and genres - haiku, sonnet, book jacket blurb - Madden does the same but in different styles of comics - Marvel superhero, R. Crumb, Herge, even as a map or the Bayeux Tapestry. Or he uses varying points of view, visual and verbal parodies, even radical reshuffling of the elements of the story. The result is funny, inspiring, and genuinely clever.

'Delightful, intriguing and compelling. 99 Ways to Tell a Story is a zany masterpiece that reads like a convergence of Robert Louis Stevenson, Italo Calvino and Action Comics' Harry Mathews

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Retelling the same one-page comic 99 different ways sounds boring, but Madden, a leading proponent of the value of formalist exercises, demonstrates how well boundaries can drive creativity, inspired by the similar work of Raymond Queneau. A new discovery awaits the reader on every page. The basic scene is a nonstory about a man who forgets why he's looking in the refrigerator. In the variations, new elements are introduced and removed: different characters, more panels, fewer closeups, flashbacks, text-only or a focus on sound or color effects. Madden acknowledges the history of the medium with allusions to various genres and characters (including the Yellow Kid, Krazy Kat and Winsor McCay's Rarebit Fiend). Favorites include a how-to on building a comic, a palindromic story that reads the same backward and forward, and a calligram (with text formed into a question mark shape). The book's format is ideal, with each page of comics facing a small identifying label, so approaches don't compete with each other, yet pages placed in sequence add up to another narrative. Anyone interested in comics or storytelling will learn much about the interaction between format and content through comparison of Madden's many ingenious approaches. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

In 1947 erstwhile literary surrealist Raymond Queneau published what has been called his best, most characteristic book, Les exercices de style. In it the same tiny scenario is written in 99 different ways: once in each verb tense, as a sonnet, in free verse, as a telegram, and so on. Madden works similar magic in his own medium: comics. The story : Madden closes a laptop, walks toward a refrigerator. From upstairs, his wife asks the time. He tells her and opens the fridge. But he can't remember what he meant to find in it. This is first unadventurously told in eight panels, using perpendicular perspective and unobtrusive progressions of--analogizing to film camera placements--medium, long, and close viewpoints. The fun begins with the very next presentation, Monologue, in which Madden, seated with coffee, recalls the action to a fixed viewpoint (like that of a stationary camera). The remaining 97 ways reconstruct and/or rearrange the visual and/or verbal components and/or meaning in a breathtaking display of imagination that is often hilarious and literally, gloriously kaleidoscopic. --Ray Olson Copyright 2005 Booklist

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Matt Madden is the author of Black Candy and Odds Off. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the author and cartoonist Jessica Abel.