Suggested Tags: Chris Ware, Graphic Novels, Jimmy Corrigan, ACME Novelty Library, CBR 105, Art Comics, Depression in Literature

Just don’t expect a happy ending. Jimmy wouldn’t know what to do with one anyway. Do you own a copy of ACME Novelty Library #5? Let me know in the comments—I’m trying to track the variant cover runs.

When people talk about "graphic novels that feel like a punch to the gut," Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth is always at the top of the list. But for collectors and deep-dive readers, the specific printing or issue number CBR 105 holds a unique place in the artifact’s history.

However, if you believe that comics are an art form capable of literature—capable of Ulysses or The Remembrance of Things Past —then this is required reading. It won the Guardian First Book Award (the first graphic novel to do so). It changed the medium.

First, a clarification for the uninitiated: Jimmy Corrigan was originally serialized in Ware’s comic book series The ACME Novelty Library . Issue #5 (often cataloged as CBR 105 in certain collection databases) is where the modern, haunting version of Jimmy truly crystallized before the full hardcover collection took over the world.