Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library has seen the debut of several major works already. After Jimmy Corrigan and Quimby the Mouse, Rusty Brown has been moved to center stage. Rusty Brown is another sad-sack protagonist, but this time he’s a boy in grammar school and the whole thing has a very 1970s retro vibe to it.

The look and style of the story is trademark Ware: Incredible layout and design are emphasized by minimal drawings and a barren narrative. This time, Ware inserts himself in the story as a lovably depraved high school art teacher.

The Rusty Brown storyline has already seen some interesting experiments. We have a lunch box illustrated with a detailed Rusty Brown story that is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. And everything Ware puts out feels like an art object. This issue of Acme Novelty Library is no different. It is worth reading now, but it will certainly be available as a Rusty Brown novel at some future date. ( )

The latest installment in an ongoing series by the genius who brought us "Jimmy Corrigan." This book is a beautiful object as well as a brilliant piece of writing. -Charles

A really beautiful book, both in terms of Ware's beautiful drawings and in terms of the actual book itself - the front cover is an etched representation of images familiar from any American childhood in the late twentieth century. The book almost has the physical feel of a school library volume from that era, and the story lives up to that unusual starting point. As always, Ware is a master at weaving a tale that is simultaneously melancholy, beautiful, and astonishingly honest. It's hard to say enough good things about The ACME Novelty Library #17 - if graphic novels are one of the most rewarding segments of the art world in the early twenty-first century, then Chris Ware deserves a lot of the credit for that fact, and this volume amply demonstrates why. ( )