Acme Novelty Library HC (2005-Present) comic books 2006-2008

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.

Volume 19 - 1st printing. By Chris Ware. The penultimate teen issue of the ACME Novelty Library appears this autumn with a new chapter from the electrifying experimental narrative "Rusty Brown," which examines the life, work, and teaching techniques of one of its central real-life protagonists, W. K. Brown. A previously marginal figure in the world of speculative fiction, Brown's widely anthologized first story, "The Seeing Eye Dogs of Mars," garnered him instant acclaim and the coveted White Dwarf Award for Best New Writer when it first appeared in the pages of Nebulous in the late 1950s, but his star was quickly eclipsed by the rise of such talents as Anton Jones, J. Sterling Imbroglio, and others of the so-called psychovisionary movement. (Modern scholarship concedes, however, that they now owe a not inconsequential aesthetic debt to Brown.) New surprises and discoveries concerning the now legendarily reclusive and increasingly influential writer mark this nineteenth number of the ACME Novelty Library, itself a regular award-winning periodical, lauded for its clear lettering and agreeable coloring, which, as any cultured reader knows, are cornerstones of any genuinely serious literary effort. Full color, seventy-eight pages, with hardbound covers, full indicia, and glue, the ACME Novelty Library offers its readers a satisfying, if not thrilling, rocket ride into the world of unkempt imagination and pulse-pounding excitement. Hardcover (Horizontal format), 9-in. x 7-in., 80 pages, PC/PB&W. Cover price $15.95.