Chris Ware’s (HF Vol.3) long awaited graphic novel, Building Stories is coming! Comic book artists and creator of the Acme Novelty Library series and stories such as Jimmy Corrigan, Smartest Kid on Earth will release the graphic novel Building Stories as a 260 page box set this October by Pantheon Books. The serialized stories have appeared in the New York Times, Sunday Magazine and The New Yorker over the past ten years and is compiled in this portfolio in the form of two hard cover books, gamesboard stock fold outs, broadsheet newspapers and of course mini-comics packed nicely into a beautiful box. As usual Ware takes full advantage of the print medium using every surface of page and box to tell a story.
Chris Ware is known for combining a droll, self effacing humor with a purposefully antiseptic graphic style, creating stark contrast to his intuitive studies of the human condition in all it’s nakedness — all the better to wrench your heart out.
Building Stories follows the inhabitants of a three-flat Chicago apartment building: a 30-year-old woman who has yet to find someone with whom to spend the rest of her life; a couple (possibly married) who wonder if they can bear each other’s company for another minute; and finally, an elderly woman who never married and is the building’s landlady. More details here and check out a thorough preview of the physical portfolio here.
As an accompaniment to the collection, Drawn and Quarterly is releasing a signed and numbered limited edition of Wares Multi-story Building Model print portfolio! Official comic shop release is October 24.
Also, in tandem with the release of Building Stories, Chris Ware presents two exhibits to run concurrently at the Adam Baumgold Gallery and Carl Hammer Gallery which opened this past weekend.
