When I got to Pianos for the 99 Ways to Tell a Story book party, it was a piece of cake to spot Matt Madden—after all, I’d just seen nearly a hundred different one-page comics showing Madden walking from the laptop to the refrigerator, as his wife (fellow comics artist Jessica Abel) asks him what time it is. The visual style of each retelling varies wildly, from Matt’s POV to a parody of newspaper funnies, with different images and words, and spot-on parodies of ’50s horror comics and early strips like Krazy Kat and Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend. Why so many variations? It’s a tribute to French experimental writer Raymond Queneau, who once published a similar batch of “exercises in style” in different literary genres.
After we chatted about the book for a bit, Madden introduced me to Shanna Compton, who was on her way to pack for the West Coast leg of the tour for her new collection of poems, Down Spooky. Then I bumped into Abel at the bar, which got me to meeting Lauren Weinstein, who gave me a postcard for her next comics collection, Girl Stories (which will be coming out next spring). It also turned out that Weinstein’s band, Flaming Fire, played at a book party I’d missed last week for Lisa Crystal Carver’s “post-punk memoir” Drugs Are Nice. The band took the stage after a number of performers reenacted scenes from Carver’s sex life and, Weinstein recalled, as she dramatically collapsed on the stage during their closing number, she couldn’t help thinking, “I’m going down on a stage that’s just been peed on!” (Hey, don’t take our word for it: Rachel Kramer Bussel was there, too, leaving just 97 more ways for that story to be told…)