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Building Stories #[l]
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThis oversized, boxed collection from Pantheon presents Chris Ware's acclaimed graphic novel 'Building Stories' in a unique format—a set of fourteen distinct printed pieces, including booklets, broadsheets, and a hardcover volume, that can be read in any order. Rather than a linear narrative, the work weaves together the lives of the residents of a Chicago apartment building, exploring themes of memory, loneliness, and the passage of time through Ware's intricate, emotionally resonant artwork and experimental storytelling. Originally released in 2012, this edition collects the entire interconnected saga in a single, unconventional package that reflects the fragmented nature of its characters' experiences.
In "The Daily Bee," Chris Ware delivers a quietly unsettling glimpse into the inner life of Branford, a man whose routine is shadowed by strange, consuming urges. As he returns to the hive near his apartment building, small moments—like sharing pollen with Betty—unravel into private rituals of self-torment, all rendered with Ware’s signature precision and emotional depth. The story, written and illustrated by Chris Ware, captures the quiet absurdity and intimacy of modern isolation.
In this quirky, satirical slice of life from Building Stories, Branford finds himself the odd one out among his bee friends when his fascination with pollen draws teasing. Back at the hive near the apartment building, he shares a bit of pollen with Betty, but his thoughts soon spiral into self-inflicted nighttime torment—caught between instinct and embarrassment.
In this quiet, dream-drenched moment from Building Stories, Branford wakes from a vivid sexual dream about fertilizing the queen, the memory lingering as he eats breakfast and steps outside—only to find himself suddenly and inexplicably trapped in the apartment’s basement. The ordinary day unravels into something strange and intimate, where the boundaries between mind and space blur.
In "null," Betty handles her usual routine of housekeeping and childcare, but her calm is disrupted when Branford fails to show up by nightfall—trapped, it seems, inside the basement. The quiet domestic rhythm unravels with a single, persistent mystery: why hasn’t he come out?
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Reprinted in Building Stories #12, Building Stories #12
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