Ware said he proposed a similar boxed project to Eclipse Comics in 1987, though it was turned down, and had done some smaller-scale single-edition boxed projects while in art school. The boxed version of Building Stories was proposed to Pantheon Books in 2006.[1] The work took a decade to complete, and was published by Pantheon in 2012.[2]
Portions of Building Stories were previously published. Some appeared in Ware's Acme Novelty Library #18 (2007), which itself contained material from The New Yorker, Nest, Kramers Ergot, Chicago Reader, Hangar 21 Magazine, and Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern.[3][4] The story "Touch Sensitive" was originally published in the McSweeney's iPad app in September 2011.[3] The New York Times Magazine ran a seven-month series from 2005-2006 that was reproduced in the box set in the form of a Little Golden Book.[5]
The completed book was published in box form, and is made up of fourteen printed works, including cloth-bound books, newspapers, broadsheets and flip books.[2] The individual pieces are designed to be read in any order,[6] though the inside of the box includes navigational diagrams to assist the reader,[7] with a note that reads "everything you need to know to read the new graphic novel Building Stories".[8] Ware experiments with the book as printed object in a way similar to the experimental French comics collective Oubapo, paying particular attention to the physical aspects of the individual books—the quality of the paper, binding and page dimensions. In a world of disposability and instant communication, Ware states on the reverse of the book that "it's sometimes reassuring—perhaps even necessary—to have something to hold on to". In all, the box contained four broadsheets, three magazines, two strips, two pamphlets, a four-panel storyboard, a hardcover book, and a book designed to mimic the Little Golden Books style.[9]
