Libraries hold the greatest stories ever told but what happens when the story is the library itself? Read on for our review of “One Week In The Library” but be warned, there will be some minor spoilers along the way.
Written by W. Maxwell Prince
Illustrated by John Amor and Kathryn Layno
Welcome to the Library. It’s here that every story ever written is catalogued and monitored by a single man, who’s begun to notice something strange: the books are rebelling. Image Comics proudly presents this experimental graphic novella from writer W. MAXWELL PRINCE and artist JOHN AMOR, which recounts a troublesome week in the Library via seven short stories—one for each day—that use comics, infographics, prose, and poetry to play with the graphic medium and explore the multivalent world of living narrative.
December is a weird month for comic book releases because so many readers are preoccupied with the holidays and lots of websites contributors (including me) are thinking about what they read this year and what they want next year. Sneaking in at the end of the year is a complete graphic novel that I would have easily included on my best of 2016 list if I had waited one more week. “One Week In The Library” is a success in every way. It isn’t afraid to be bold and while it may be a little too experimental for some readers, it’s exactly the kind of thing that I love.
“One Week In The Library” is a standalone graphic novel that tells the story of a librarian over a week. This librarian experiences seven very different things from different books each day of the week. As time passes, we get an understanding of his life and what his role here is. Through diagrams, prose, mathematical equations, we’re shown the secrets of books and literature and what they mean. As his week comes to an end, our adventure does too and we’re left thinking about what we just read.
“One Week In The Library” is the kind of cool, weird thing I wish Image would publish more of. Despite the bigger ideas, this is still an easy to follow story that has those bigger ideas as an added bonus. Prince’s story has a lot to unpack and the language he uses is deliberate and beautiful. Each short story is planned out so well with each having a distinct message and visual tone. As the book goes on, “One Week In The Library” doesn’t go down the predictable path of a lonely person becoming unhinged. The librarian wants out but he loves his world, accepts it, takes care of it and learns all that he can. Prince’s writing is heartfelt in places and kind of Morrison-esque in others. He’ll present a fun quip and then jump right into this deep exploration of the meaning of life and stories. He does this without ruining the momentum of the plot and he does this without making the reader feel unintelligent.
A few months back, “Sex Criminals” played around with self insertion in a very direct way that didn’t work at all for me. “Sex Criminals” is not this. It isn’t experimental in regards to what comic books are. I mention this because “One Week In The Library” is purposely analyzing what should and shouldn’t be in comic books. It involves lots of different things, including charts, numbers and outright prose, forcing you as the reader to question what actually constitutes a comic book. The self insertion that comes along (I won’t reveal the how or why because it’s very well done) makes complete sense with what this story is. It doesn’t read as vanity or a bad attempt at comedy.
John Amor’s art initially, doesn’t feel right for this story. It almost feels safe but as the story goes on, it becomes apparent why he’s a co-collaborator here. His works starts off sort of mechanical but clean and it quickly becomes a combination of lots of different styles. There are pages of cartoony, animation, there are pages that look like a newspaper strip and Amor even goes into trippy territory as the barrier between the library and the books becomes blurred. Amor knows when to pull back and when to let loose but what I enjoy the most is the way the librarian looks in contrast to the chaos around him. He’s steady and clean cut even as he interacts with the most unreal elements. Amor does great work showing this without making the librarian entirely cold. There is a sequence that takes place completely without dialogue and it is easily the highlight of the issue from an art standpoint.
On top of Amor’s art, we get wonderful color work from Kathryn Layno and charts from Ashley Walker. Layno’s colors are very similar to Amor’s art in that they don’t feel right at the start. It isn’t until this story begins to develop that you see just how right the tone she strikes is. Her colors start off softer and she holds this for the most part but it works. It keeps the book feeling definitively fantasy but she also uses shadows effectively. Ashley Walker’s charts probably wouldn’t be something I’d mention in any other review but in this book, they have a true impact on the visual elements of this story. They are clear, concise and creative.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – “One Week In the Library” is $9.99 and a very good use of $9.99. I want more of this from Image.
