Rusty Brown (2005)

Rusty Brown is a comics series by American cartoonist Chris Ware. The work is an ongoing, multi-part narrative centered on a group of interconnected characters associated with a private school in Omaha, Nebraska, with storylines spanning from childhood into adulthood. Although named for its title character — a socially isolated boy with a fixation on collecting pop-cultural memorabilia — the series itself follows a wider cast, including Rusty's family, classmates, and teachers, across several decades. Ware has described the project as "an attempt to write a book without a protagonist." The series is a noted example of Ware's penchant for precise page layouts, muted color palettes, and typographic experimentation.

Publication history

Rusty Brown began as a series of one-page installments in Chicago alternative weekly newspapers and later in Ware's solo series Acme Novelty Library. Ware first introduced the character in Newcity in 1997, and continued the series in the Chicago Reader into the mid-2000s.

Ware later developed the material into a longer, interconnected narrative. He has stated that he began work on the expanded version of Rusty Brown shortly after completing Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth (which was published in the year 2000). Ware expanded the project in issues of the Chicago Reader and subsequently Acme Novelty Library, including issues #16, #17, #19, and #20 (published between 2005 and 2010), as well as the anthology The Book of Other People, edited by Zadie Smith. These installments introduced longer, self-contained narrative sections focused on individual characters.

The first book-length collection, Rusty Brown was published by Pantheon Books on September 24, 2019. Marketed as "Part I," the volume gathers previously published material alongside over 100 pages of newly created and revised sections, presenting the opening portion of a larger, ongoing narrative. Described in Publishers Weekly as "being the first of two volumes, it ends with the word intermission in multicolored capital letters across two pages."

Translation rights for the book were sold in multiple territories, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Brazil. The volume was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and received the Yellow Kid Award for Comic of the Year at Lucca Comics & Games.

Plot

Rusty Brown is a long-form, ongoing narrative centered on a group of interconnected characters originally associated with a private school in Omaha, Nebraska. The story moves between childhood and adulthood, with different sections focusing on individual characters at various stages of their lives.

The opening material is set in 1975. It follows Rusty Brown as a third-grade student, alongside new arrivals Chalky and Alice White, with the events unfolding over the course of a single school day. From this starting point, the narrative expands to include additional characters connected to the school — Jordan Lint, Joanne Cole, W. K. "Woody" Brown, Mr. Ware — with later sections tracing their lives over extended periods of time.

Rather than following a single linear storyline, the narrative is structured as a series of character-focused episodes. Some sections take place over the course of a single day, while others span decades, covering entire lifetimes. These strands intersect through shared settings and relationships, with events in one character's story often reappearing from another's perspective.

The narrative remains ongoing, with material published across multiple formats and time periods.

Characters

Rusty Brown: The central character. The opening section follows him as a third-grade student at a small private school in Omaha, where he is frequently bullied by classmates. One snowy morning, he imagines that he has developed a superpower — enhanced hearing — and adopts the fantasy identity "Ear Man" (though this has no actual effect on his real-world circumstances). He brings a Supergirl action figure to school, hiding it during class, and becomes fixated on it throughout the day. Rusty is repeatedly targeted by classmate Jordan Lint; he retreats into elaborate daydreams involving heroism and rescue scenarios. His friendship with Chalky White develops when the two boys bond awkwardly over their shared interest in toys. A recurring theme is Rusty's greedy, egocentric, and bold behavior, opposed to Chalky's kind, timid, and often naïve nature. Rusty often utilizes tricks to swindle Chalky of his action figures, while the gullible Chalky is never able to see through Rusty's true nature. In later material from the Rusty Brown series (including earlier newspaper installments and Acme Novelty Library issues), Rusty is depicted as an embittered, socially isolated adult, preoccupied with collecting childhood memorabilia, including action figures, lunchboxes, and novelty drink cups. In these episodes, he organizes his life around his possessions, seeking out rare collectibles while also revisiting past relationships (such as with Chalky White).