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Rating: 
Summary: I read this book over and over
Review: and I can't believe no one else has ever reviewed it. These stories are about a never-never New York, filled with oddness and with indelible characters. The artwork is challenging: shadowy ink drawings that appear off-the-cuff but reveal, on inspection, a flood of detail and nuance.Julius Knipl is an amazing creation: a funny man with many funny tics, and a man whose loneliness is terribly moving. There's a sequence in "Cheap Novelties" that concerns Knipl's attendance at the funeral of an old friend; I'm not sure I've ever seen so much emotion rendered with so little ink. My eyes mist over every time I think of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretensions stripped away.
Review: As a gentile, I bought copies for friends to show them insights Katchor gives of "ourselves" through Knipl's words/actions/self-doubts. Nostalgia, combined with 'layers' of deep, Jewish wisdom, humour and pathos makes this something all generations should read.
Rating:
Summary: Pretensions stripped away.
Review: As a gentile, I bought copies for friends to show them insights Katchor gives of "ourselves" through Knipl's words/actions/self-doubts. Nostalgia, combined with 'layers' of deep, Jewish wisdom, humour and pathos makes this something all generations should read.
Rating:
Summary: Ben Katchor's Stirring Comic Strip
Review: Julius P. Knipl Real Estate Photographer is a comic strip celebrating sentimental reminders of a world behind us now. Cheap Novelities is a collection of these comics that speak of the way things used to be, the way things are, and the way things should be. The main character, Julius Knipl, is a reserved witness to the changes of progress and the artifacts of society hidden below the surface. Knipl points out the importance of decorative molding, ceiling fans in a metropolitan summer, the lonely but essential task of elevator inspectors, the implications of a soup factory closing and so on. The writing is moving, disturbing, and subtley hilarious. I find myself quoting these strips from time to time. Cheap Novelties is a fantastic read.
Rating:
Summary: Like staring into a mirror at the back of your head
Review: Mozart was born to make music whereas Ben Katchor has the gift of capturing the essence of free enterprise and the soul of Everyman in 20th century America. My God, if Katchor had been alive in the 1800's, what conclusions could we have drawn from that age? Don't stop, Katchor! You're onto something that will endure. Your insight is amazing. Your humor is matchless.
Rating:
Summary: an introduction to the world of julius knipl
Review: This book is where it all begins. Strange, beautiful stories that make you take notice of the aspects of the world that you might miss. Required reading if you have ever lived in New York. -yakov
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