Editing Chris Ware (section)

==Career==
Born in [[Omaha, Nebraska|Omaha]], [[Nebraska]], Ware resides in the [[Chicago]] area of [[Illinois]].<ref name=fantabio>[http://fantagraphics.com/flog/artist-bio-chris-ware/ Chris Ware bio at Fantagraphics]</ref> His earliest published strips appeared in the late 1980s on the comics page of ''[[The Daily Texan]]'', the student newspaper of the [[University of Texas at Austin]]. In addition to numerous daily strips under different titles, Ware also had a weekly satirical [[science fiction]] serial in the paper titled ''[[Floyd Farland - Citizen of the Future]]''. This was eventually published in 1988 as a [[prestige format]] comic book from [[Eclipse Comics]], and its publication even led to a brief correspondence between Ware and [[Timothy Leary]].

While still a sophomore at UT, Ware came to the attention of [[Art Spiegelman]], who invited Ware to contribute to ''[[Raw (comics magazine)|Raw]]'', the influential anthology magazine Spiegelman was co-editing with [[Françoise Mouly]]. Ware has acknowledged that being included in ''Raw'' gave him confidence and inspired him to explore printing techniques and self-publishing. His [[Fantagraphics Books|Fantagraphics]] series ''Acme Novelty Library'' defied comics publishing conventions with every issue. The series featured a combination of new material as well as reprints of work Ware had done for the ''Texan'' (such as ''Quimby the Mouse'') and the Chicago weekly paper ''[[Newcity]]''. Ware's work appeared originally in ''Newcity'' before he moved on to his current "home", the ''[[Chicago Reader]]''. Beginning with the 16th issue of ''Acme Novelty Library'', Ware began [[self-publishing]] his work while maintaining a relationship with Fantagraphics for distribution and storage. This was a return to Ware's early career, self-publishing such books as ''Lonely Comics and Stories'' as well as miniature [[digest size|digests]] of stories based on [[Quimby the Mouse]] and an unnamed potato-like creature.

In recent years he has also been involved in editing (and designing) several books and book series, including the new reprint series of ''[[Gasoline Alley (comic strip)|Gasoline Alley]]'' from [[Drawn & Quarterly]] titled ''Walt and Skeezix''; a reprint series of ''[[Krazy Kat]]'' by Fantagraphics; and the 13th volume of ''[[Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern]]'', which is devoted to comics. He was the editor of ''The Best American Comics 2007'', the second installment devoted to comics in the ''[[The Best American series|Best American]]'' series.

In 2007, Ware curated an exhibition for the [[Phoenix Art Museum]] focused on the non-comic work of five contemporary cartoonists. The exhibition, titled "UnInked: Paintings, Sculpture and Graphic Works by Five Cartoonists", ran from April 21 through August 19.<ref>[http://phxart.org/exhibition/exhibitionuninked.aspx UnInked: Paintings, Sculpture and Graphic Work by Five Cartoonists] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311133950/http://phxart.org/exhibition/exhibitionuninked.aspx |date=March 11, 2008 }}, Retrieved March 2, 2010</ref> Ware also edited and designed the catalog for the exhibition.

In 2017, Ware's book ''Monograph'' appeared. It is a part-memoir, part-scrapbook retrospective of his career to that point. The [[The New York Review of Books|New York Review of Books]] described it as "a grand tomb in the Egyptian mold, whose contents will tell anyone who breaks into it what this person’s life was like," adding that "it seems almost an invasion of privacy to enter this crypt."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Boxer |first=Sarah |title=Being Chris Ware {{!}} Sarah Boxer |url=https://www.nybooks.com/online/2018/01/03/being-chris-ware/ |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=The New York Review of Books |date=3 January 2018 |language=en}}</ref>