Rusty Brown

The biggest story in graphic novels this year was the return of Chris Ware… the epically inventive Rusty Brown is a single day at a Nebraska school in the mid-1970s, from which Ware spins the life stories of a shy nerd, his frustrated father, the privileged class jerk and a thoughtful, banjo-playing teacher.

James Smart, Guardian *Books of the Year*

Chris Ware's adventurous, sprawling, dazzling book [Rusty Brown]...is so intricately designed that, like many of Ware’s books, the result is an art object… You feel protective, anxious about dog-earing anything, worried you’ll blink and miss something. And that’s before you reach the story… there are winter days here I haven’t seen since childhood, and a stillness so evocative and tender you feel like an intruder. Which is the point, a generous act of detailing, and honoring, everyday life.

Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune

A treasure trove of invention… With its awe-inspiring exploration of regret and ageing, anxiety and ennui…Rusty Brown is a human document of rare richness.

Leo Robson, Guardian, *Book of the Day*

Moving, sourly funny and virtuosically drawn… It’s hard to express in prose how imaginatively and effectively Ware marries words to images, how expressive his almost diagrammatically minimalist style can be, how he juxtaposes banality and trauma, how he sketches the passing of time and the sense of nowhereness in blank wide shots.

Sam Leith, Daily Telegraph

Rusty Brown is a towering achievement… a powerful and sometimes heartbreaking book.

Doug Johnstone, Big Issue

An astounding graphic novel about nothing less than the nature of life and time... Ware's dazzling geometric art – pointillism for Woody's eyesight sans glasses; close-ups of Joanne's face through the decades – has never been better... Ware again displays his virtuosic ability to locate the extraordinary within the ordinary, elevating normal lives into something profound, unforgettable, and true.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Once seen, the Ware technique is compelling and unmistakeable… those who loved Jimmy Corrigan are going to faint with delight at Rusty Brown… the combination of a hypnotic drawing stlye and the characters rattling around within the doll’s house his technique creates makes for a mesmerising few hours.

Strong Words

Mordantly funny and beautifully drawn.

Sarah Hughes, i

Charting the lives of Nebraskan outcast Rusty Brown and his family, friends, and enemies, Ware brings his telescoping lens to the large and small details of his characters’ intersecting, brutally human experiences. His dazzling geometric art amply rewards the challenge posed by each puzzle-like page.

Rich Johnston, Bleeding Cool