Chris Ware was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1967. Known for his New Yorker magazine covers, he’s hailed as a master of the comic art form. Ware’s graphic novels tell stories about people in suburban Midwestern neighborhoods. Stories featuring many of Ware’s protagonists often first appear in serialized form in publications before being organized into their own books. Experimenting with the form of the novel, Ware’s Building Stories is a box set of fourteen printed works in a variety of formats, that can be read in any order. The artist’s complex compositions unfold time through space in arrangements which include pages entirely absent of words, radical shifts in scale, and characters, locations, and events seen from multiple points of view.

| Teasers | |
|---|---|
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Requires extra concentration |
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Requires extra concentration & patience |
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Requires extra concentration, patience & aspirin |
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Requires extra concentration, patience, aspirin & Valium |
| Tricks | |
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Hors d'oeuvres-taste Stave shenanigans. |
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Faint of heart? This may be your limit? |
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Be prepared to do battle. |
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If they made Pepto Bismol for the brain, this is when you would need it. |
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What part of 'impossible' don't you understand? |
| Tormentors | |
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You’re feeling like a genius! |
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You start to strain your brain! |
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Frustration creeps in! |
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The real agony begins! |
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Hair pulling, expletives, and screaming ensue! Get the POINT?! |
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If you haven't gotten the POINT yet... ☠️ |
| Troublemakers | |
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Holy Smokes! You did it! |
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You feel feverish as your temperature begins to rise. |
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Requires you to loosen your collar and let out some steam. |
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Be prepared for an eruption, you might as well throw yourself into an inferno! |
| Treats | |
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Good for your heart. |
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Gets your heart racing. |
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Your heart might skip a beat. |
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Time to monitor your heart rate. |