Acme Novelty Library HC (2005-Present) comic books 2005-2007

Volume 1 - 1st printing. By Chris Ware. F. C. Ware returns to the book trade with The ACME Novelty Library, a hardcover distillation of all his surviving one-page cartoon jokes with which he tuckpointed the holes of his regular comic book periodical over the past decade. This definitive congestion of stories of the future, the old west, and even of modern life nonetheless tries to stay interesting by including a luminescent map of the heavens, a chart of the general structure of the universe, assorted cut-out activities, and a complete history of The ACME Novelty Company itself. Hardcover, 9-in. x 15-in., PC/PB&W. NOTE: Vol. 2-15 does NOT exist in HC format. Cover price $27.50.

Add to cart Near Mint $23.95

Volume 16 - 1st printing. By Chris Ware. This newest edition of The ACME Novelty Library features the first serial installment of Rusty Brown, Ware's first major lengthy 'narrative indulgence' since his Jimmy Corrigan graphic novel. Rusty Brown will be serialized in ACME over the course of several issues. The first installment begins with young Rusty, an outcast in his suburban Chicago elementary school, befriended solely by his Supergirl action figure... until he meets new kid on the block and fellow comic nerd, Chalky White. Rusty's story is an uncomfortably vivid and uncompromising look into the life of a social outcast. Hardcover (Horizontal Format), 9 1/2-in. x 7-in., 56 pages, PC/PB&W. Cover price $15.95.

Volume 17 - 1st printing. By Chris Ware. Continuing with the second half of the introduction to his shamelessly meandering graphic novel "Rusty Brown" (which began last issue at a private school in the 1970s Midwest) the six-sided crystal suggested by the exegesis of the first installment is slowly turned and examined in mid-morning winter sunlight sometime between the bell of first period and the conclusion of lunch for the first through the fourth grades. Also included are more thorough examinations of many of the main characters' cloudy motivations, personal habits, and favorite restaurants, to say nothing of the small dust mote around which they have coalesced and the complications in its life due to the acquisition of superpowers sometime the night before. Hardcover, 9-in. x 7-in., 96 pages, PC/PB&W. Cover price $16.95.

Volume 18 - 1st printing. By Chris Ware. An Eisner Award-nominee! Cartoonist Chris Ware abandons the engaging serialization of his "Rusty Brown" and instead focuses upon his more experimentally grim narrative, "Building Stories." Set in a Chicago apartment building more or less in the year 2000, the stories move from the straightforward to the complex, invading character's memories and personal ambitions with a text point size likely unreadable to human beings over the age of 45. Hardcover, 8-in. x 10 1/2-in., 52 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $17.95.