6 Chris Ware first editions are documented on this shelf, from Acme Novelty Library #1 (1993) to Rusty Brown (2019) across 4 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Chris Ware title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Chris Ware copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Acme Novelty Library #1 — 1993 · Fantagraphics BooksFirst issue of Chris Ware's oversized Acme Novelty Library series, Fantagraphics, first printing. Cover-dated Winter 1993-1994 (frequently cited as 1994); features the Jimmy Corrigan color story. Issues 1 through 15 were published by Fantagraphics before Ware moved to self-publishing and later Drawn & Quarterly. Number 1 is the key issue of the run. True first of the Acme Novelty Library series is number 1 (cover-dated Winter 1993-1994). Format and publisher varied across the run; number 1 is the key. Some issues saw later reprintings. Collected Acme Novelty Datebook and Library hardcovers are separate first-thus editions, not the original issues.
- Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth — 2000 · Pantheon BooksFirst book edition (collecting the ACME Novelty Library serial), Pantheon, New York, September 2000, oversized hardcover with illustrated paper-covered boards and dust jacket, ISBN 0-375-40453-8 (9780375404535), 380 pp. Elaborately printed Ware design with a dense copyright page; first-printing copies retain the original Pantheon jacket with price. US true first of the collected work; won the 2001 Guardian First Book Award, the first graphic novel to take a major UK book prize. The underlying ACME Novelty Library issues (Fantagraphics, 1990s) are the serial first appearances. The Pantheon 2000 hardcover is the first collected book edition. No book-club edition; later Pantheon printings differ in the printing line and may lack the original jacket price. Verify the 2000 first printing and the original-price jacket.
- Quimby the Mouse — 2003 · Fantagraphics BooksFirst collected hardcover edition of Ware's Quimby strips (mostly 1990-1991, drawn from Acme Novelty Library, Raw, and other sources), Fantagraphics, 2003 first printing. Large oversized format with gold-stamped hardcover boards. First-thus collection (2003); the underlying strips date to the early 1990s. Reprinted in later editions.
- Lint (Acme Novelty Library #20) — 2010 · Drawn & QuarterlyHardcover Acme Novelty Library number 20, titled Lint, published by Drawn & Quarterly, first printing 2010 (November 2010), ISBN 978-1-77046-020-1. A landscape-format clothbound object designed by Ware himself: gold debossing on the boards with a flock wallpaper-style patterned edging, issued as a self-contained hardback rather than a conventionally jacketed trade book. Chronicles the entire life of Jordan…. First-thus standalone volume, part of the larger Rusty Brown project. The true first is the 2010 Drawn & Quarterly hardcover bearing ISBN 978-1-77046-020-1; there is no separate competing first. Later printings are reprints; the design and gold-debossed landscape boards are consistent across printings, so confirm the 2010 first-printing copyright statement rather than relying on cover appearance.
- Building Stories — 2012 · Pantheon BooksLarge hardboard boxed set of 14 separately bound printed elements (cloth/board-bound books, broadsheets, pamphlets, an accordion-fold board). First printing identified by the complete number line printed on the inside of the box; Pantheon imprint. US Pantheon boxed set is the true first; the UK Jonathan Cape edition followed. No earlier precedence elsewhere. No book-club edition. Later printings are indicated by a shorter number line on the inside of the box.
- Rusty Brown — 2019 · Pantheon BooksFirst book edition, Pantheon, 2019, stated First Edition with number line ending in 1. Quarter cloth over pictorial boards; dust jacket unfolds into a large illustrated poster as issued. Collects and expands earlier Acme Novelty Library material. First book edition 2019; portions previously appeared in the Acme Novelty Library. Later printings are numbered accordingly.
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