[close] Chris Ware's ACME Novelty Library has been the best-selling and most critically-acclaimed alternative comic book throughout the last decade, since its debut in 1993 from Fantagraphics. For the last several years, the series serialized the landmark graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, collected last year by Pantheon and currently in a third hardcover printing. This new issue, #15, marks the first non-Jimmy Corrigan issue in years. A stand-alone, all-new collection of short humor strips featuring Ware's most popular characters, the issue serves as a perfect introduction to Ware's meticulous work as well as a welcomed follow-up to those craving more after Jimmy Corrigan. This is the first issue of the ACME series to be available to the book trade.

As Chris Ware puts it, "Our new chapbook promises the densest array of foolish quips, gags, and muddle yet. The 'Book of Jokes II' attempts to adhere the broken narratives of favorites like 'Rocket Sam,' 'Big Tex,' 'Quimby the Mouse,' and 'Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth' while introducing new favorites like 'Rusty Brown' and our scientific survey of the world of the future, 'The Tales of Tomorrow.' The volume is printed in full color with special pull-out bonuses, including a painfully complicated cut-out three-dimensional motion picture viewer, and two only slightly less cumbersome flip books. Taller than most bookshelves, this will be one of the first things you throw away the next time you move." [close]