I feel like I've read this one before and I know the end paper bits turned up in  Stories but another fun depressing read of lives of quiet desperation, which is probably the Chris Ware life motto.

Another stellar work by Chris Ware.

Another astonishing title from Chris Ware, one of the handful of real geniuses working in the medium of graphic novels today. While thematically similar to Jimmy Corrigan, Ware's earlier and longer work in the same medium, The ACME Novelty Library #16 is perhaps even more melancholy. Ware's technique is familiar to anyone who has read Jimmy Corrigan, in that he weaves together the separate story lines of several characters who are all living diminished lives, full of regret and loss. Nonetheless, as with Jimmy Corrigan, there is a note of hopefulness here, a sense that these unhappy lives can be salvaged if these wounded characters can just learn to acknowledge and communicate with each other. This sort of emotionally charged narrative can be fraught with mushiness, silliness, and simple mindedness, but Ware is talented enough and sure enough in his aim to hit the target without bringing along the detritus so familiar from similar tales born of lessor creators. Taken altogether, The ACME Novelty Library #16 is another triumph for the hugely talented Ware.

the parallel timeline structure spoke truth to intersecting lives and the anxiety of school for all involved

same old starkly depressing stories, same old heart breaking graphic design

I love this story and I wish I still owned it. There's little point in me reviewing it as it's long out of print, so if you don't own it, you probably won't. Much as I love Mr Ware's books I can only take them in small doses, I find it tough going.

Incredibly beautiful and sad. Rusty Brown will clearly be an epic of alienation. Curious to see where this goes and how long it takes to get there. I'm really enjoying Building Stories, as well.

the simplicity of the drawings makes it more resonant somehow. i love the way he plays with layout, with stories running horizontally on the bottom, inverted directions on a page, zooming in and out, and the building stories at the back is excellent.

There's a lot that annoys me about Chris Ware. He's precious and fetishistic about his formats to an obnoxious degree (referring to issues of his comics as 'objets d'art,' refusing to have them reprinted), and his constant, defensive self-deprecation often reads like the smuggest sort of humble-bragging ("Oh, I'm suuuuch a dork for knowing soooo much about philosophy and art. Nobody will like my books because they're just toooo esoteric").

But.

Goddamn, is he good at what he does. This issue contains the opening parts of "Rusty Brown" and "Building Stories." Each storyline uses ingenious layouts to present a dozen or so human lives. These lives often run parallel to one another. They occasionally intersect, but they never connect. We occupy the same time and space, and we influence each other in unseen ways, but we are each alone. It's a tragic concept, presented here with humor and grace. Chris Ware can go on annoying me forever if it means he keeps putting out 'objets d'art' this funny and moving.

Deeply moving. It brought tears to my eyes. Each panel and sentence is so rich with detail and meaning.

life is a bitch like the moment that you scrapped your car when you are parking the 100 times..

I think Chris Ware is my favorite cartoonist. I think it may be the subject matter (lonely people who lead disappointing lives...) but also his drawing style. In this one, it truly feels like you are watching a movie rather than merely reading, and his attention to certain details makes it very compelling. I've read much of the last part with the Rusty Brown character out of order, but it didn't affect the impact of the story line. Although you think one might get tired of the same themes of loneliness, Ware actually is able to make it refreshing in every novel. In 18 (which is my favorite) he is able to evoke this feeling of a static emotion throughout that isn't really used in 16. Overall, It's not my favorite one, but I liked it a lot, and I know I'll read it again.