This is another odd volume put out by McSweeney's. Its a collection of three different sketchbooks reprinted in facsimlie from Art Spiegelman. They are each from a different time period and very well produced. The liner notes that come with the whole thing are informative but short. I wish there was a bit more on what was going through his mind when he was making these sketches. Over all though, they are intersting and diverse and bizarre. Very much like RAW. ( )

3 out of 5: Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Maus, presents this 3-volume reproduction of his private sketchbooks. The first volume is the small notebook Spiegelman took to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1979. It's quite small and filled with black and white drawings. The second volume, dated 2007, is more substantive than the first, but my favorite is the third volume from 1983. Containing more detail and more color than the other two, the third volume is the most interesting to flip through.

Since there's no narrative and very few related images in these sketchbooks, they're best appreciated in small doses. The imagery is interesting but lacks the supporting substance found in Spiegelman's longer works. By far the best thing about these sketchbooks is their clever design. McSweeney's did a beautiful job publishing this "book," which consists of three volumes of different sizes, types, and textures. These really do look like real sketchbooks. If you leave them lying around the house, visitors will mistake you for the artsy type.

This review also appears on my blog Literary License. ( )