99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style

A playful and formally daring experiment from 2004, 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style is a single-issue comic by Matt Madden that retells the same mundane vignette—a man reaching for a refrigerator—in 99 different artistic and narrative styles. Published by Chamberlain Brothers, it pays homage to Raymond Queneau’s literary classic while showcasing Madden’s mastery of comics craft, from shifts in genre, perspective, and layout to homages and meta-commentary. A landmark in formalist cartooning, it remains an essential text for understanding the infinite possibilities of sequential art.