When he’s not drawing, Chris Ware likes to read and look at vintage comics. He highly recommends a book that defies even his powers of description — a folio-sized reproduction of some of America’s first newspaper cartoons, made long before super-heroes and adventure stories took over the medium. Back then, he says, the medium could be anything — and was.

—This author recommends—

Society is Nix: Gleeful Anarchy of the Dawn of the American Comic Strip 1895-1915

—More from this author—

Interview: Chris Ware on his graphic novel 'Building Stories'