See http://clubs.calvin.edu/chimes/articl...

Unstoppably good. Absorbingly good. Just, good, and I find it hard to say why. People say this is really bleak or depressing, but if you have an absurd sense of humour, I just find it honest and often laughable.

Eh. Same stuff again. I felt like I should go back and read the volumes I'd skipped, but so far I'm not impressed...

The characterizations are excellent, but without a dramatic event at its center this installment of the ongoing Rusty Brown storyline seems aimless and meandering. I'm sure things will fit together much better when the pieces of this magnum opus are finally collected in a single edition.

Yet another of Chris Ware's densely layered and beautifully designed and meticulously rendered works of despair, longing, and the nagging feeling that everyone hates you, even the ones who love you. Now I have to go find 1-16 and read them in order.

I just finished this the other night. It took me maybe a half an hour to read, but I really fell in love (again) with Chris Ware's artwork. His stories are incredibly sad, but they tap into some really intense feelings human beings can have. This particular work is a continuation (I think, as it is the only other thing I have read by him besides Jimmy Corrigan) of the story of Rusty, an incredibly awkward child in grade school. He is obviously disliked by everyone because he is "weird". He has a rampant imagination that spills into his real life and causes these really painfully embarrassing moments.
I think I am in love with Rusty, and I hope he kisses the sweet nectar of my lips someday.

Chris Ware is a genius!

Bees are cute, but they're no Quimby.

After reading the intro I'm afraid that Chris Ware might be reading this review late at night..

So if that is the case, I would just like to tell you Mr Ware, that you sir are a genius....at times a horribly disturbing genius, but a genius nonetheless, and for that I admire you shamelessly.

Thanks Sarah!

A continuation of the storyline started in the previous book, Ware continues his downbeat saga (with additional extra stuff at the end that also ended up in another collected book).

I do enjoy that boxy layout that keeps me gently tethered to the mood and story, and only wish the story was something beyond school traumas and weird/mean teachers.
Favorite page: Mr. Ware posing for his art students and urging them to "get messy."
The bee thing: alas, too small, and too much an unclear dabble of fantasy and documentary.

The continuation of the - as of 2025- unfinished Rusty Brown story. Like a lot of Ware's works, it is filled with angst, of the terrors of childhood, and the lethargy of adult life. Wonderfully illustrated, but depressing. It is followed up with a few of Ware's homages to the newspaper comic strips he must have loved reading as a child. These are filled with his customary post-modern takes on life and love, but they are still well done.