Ex libris

ex libris revolves around a character trapped in a room with nothing but a futon and a bookcase full of comics. as they peruse covers, read stories and fragments of stories, they begin to suspect that the comics contain hidden messages and... a threat. fiction and reality blur; sanity and madness become increasingly intertwined as the reader becomes convinced the key to their predicament is to be found between the panels of the strange books. with a dizzying array of inventive visual and narrative styles, ex libris continues the line of exploration and play that madden initiated with 99 ways to tell a story: exercises in style. ex libris is a tribute to the meta-fictional tradition of writers like jorge luis borges, julio cortázar, vladimir nabokov, and italo calvino (whose novel, if on a winter's night a traveler, was the inspiration). matt madden (nyc 1968) is a cartoonist, teacher, and translator. his best-known book is 99 ways to tell a story: exercises in style, a comics adaptation of raymond queneau's exercises in style. his recent work includes the comic books drawn onward and bridge. he has been living in philadelphia since 2016.