87 Billion Ways to Read This Comic (and here's one of them!) | Chris Ware's BUILDING STORIES 

Between editing and uploading this video, I found the answer to the question I ask mathematicians in the intro. According to Seth T. Hahne over at Good Ok Bad: "The total possible number of different ways to approach Building Stories is 87,178,219,200 (or more than 87 billion, or 12 times the population of the earth)."

I remember my art professor in college bringing this in and letting everyone take a piece and sharing it around the classroom just to show off the sheer detail and variety. Chris ware truly is a one of a kind comic artist that fits his own category. Thanks for the video!

And endless comic. I kept thinking of that as you discussed the stories. With no beginning, no end, like studying an high rise and its inhabitants. A project that would take lifetimes to understand or possibly an eternity to understand. Wonderful presentation. Now, I want to re-watch Kieslowski's The Decalogue films or re-reading Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch, a novel that can me read like you advised we read Ware. You got me thinking about them.

My favorite thing about Ware is that the majority of his work seems to be perpetually in print and not hard to find online. A huge pet peeve is when you find out about something and its out of print and crazy expensive.

I read and fell in love with Jimmy Corrigan this last year. Rusty Brown is waiting on my shelf and now I think I want to get my hands on this. Chris Ware has such an amazing way of displaying both the pain and unbelievable beauty of the world. Seeing his interviews it makes sense: he seems kind while having a deep well of melancholy.

When you make one book special video. it give us more information about the book. Great work 👍😃😀

Chris Ware’s Building Stories in read in 2014 along with Jimmy Corrigan Smartest Kid in the World I read in 2012 are two total complete master works of what is means to be human and all the joy pain sorrow and nastiness and substance abuse that accompanies our brief life spans . Ware is in a completely different category of genius all is own right along side of Daniel Clowes. 👑👑

A great breakdown of a really interesting formal experiment. It's exciting to see someone breaking comics out of the limitations of a singular book, of a sequential continuity or a rigid manner of absorbing the story.

Its quite contemporaneous you release a revisit video, just after I recently finished my first read through of this masterpiece! A powerful piece of work. I'm not kidding when Chris Ware has opened up my mind to how I view the world now and my own life and perceptions.. He had that much of an affect on me. I daily think about the way "building stories" happens in my life between my daily conversations, and choices I make. Brilliant, brilliant piece of work but it does take work as a reader to take in. and it doesn't happen at once, it is slowly over time it "builds." I've accepted the fact I read it first time in the order I did, lol. Any approach would have been a different experience but my experience is mine. It's all very complex and layered stuff I could talk about and peel this onion for hours lol. My connection to the black haired protagonist has been building over time as well, a very unique experience with each character. For some reason I think her name is Wendy....see I just changed your built story around that character for a second or maybe forever. lol One of my all time fave set of "comics" too. A true top highlight of the true form of Cartoonism. I can't think of anything I've read that is as unique and personal of an experience than what is layed out for you as a reader inside of this prestigious box. It's not a "book" or a "novel". It's an experience and it deserves your attention. Chris Ware is in his own stratosphere. Thank you for this extra, wonderful and in depth review, can tell you had a very well researched experience with the piece. I was so joyed to see this as a recent post, always great content and conversation! I have yet to read Rusty Browne and can't wait to complete the full C. Ware experience. RIP BB.....

Earlier this month I read my first Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan. Certainly was an experience, the book itself being both eminently collectible and imminently have-able. I imagine this to be same, with single pages/panels/layouts you can spend hours on. One of the desires I had while reading that was so see the same pages in large painting sized avatars. Here, he takes pages, and almost zooms the size of the readers in and out w.r.t the existence of the panels, showing hou how truly physically scalable his creations are.

I just hope we get the 2nd part from Rusty Brown, that was yet another master piece from Chris W

Ah yes, Building Stories, this is one that I haven't picked up yet, but from your showcase it's quite clear that I'm a degenerate and should be getting on it sooner rather than later. It's very interesting with Chris Wares' books, I've yet to read more than Jimmy Corrigan, but from what I understand the tone of melancholy and heaviness runs throughout much of his other works as well? Fantastic video as always and wonderful to see you circle back to something you did quite a while back! Better late than never :D

Lovely video thank you. I dismissed Ware as a kid, I guess it didn’t have enough noodling and explosions for me when I was 13. I reDiscovered him and Clowes recently and they’re just incredible

It's a masterpiece.

The Ulysess of comics literature

Love his books have this and 2 more + His Mega Big Book with his sketches so like him a lot 👌 was you present him to me 👌

I got this at my public library, and the librarian that day was so confused

This is the best comic review ever...

I read Chris ware's Jimmy Corrigan and Rusty Brown but couldn't find this one. I am searching it all over Pakistan.

Does anyone know what the differences between the hardcover and paperback versions are? With any other book it would be obvious, but since the work is already multiformat I don't know how the differing price points impact the experience.

Anyone knows what is the difference between the soft and hard back on Amazon? It's like 25$ difference and I prefer to pay less if I get the same experience

You gotta start working on those videos of where you talk about the creators. Numbers gonna pile up😂.