Jimmy Corrigan

Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid On Earth, by Chris Ware, is about a meek and lonely man in his mid-thirties who meets his father for the first time in a Michigan town over Thanksgiving weekend. Jimmy is an awkward and cheerless character with an overbearing mother and a very limited social life. Jimmy attempts to escape his unhappiness via an active imagination that sometimes gets him into awkward situations. The book deals with loneliness, familial dysfunction, inadequacy, bullying, generational conflict, masculinity, sexual frustration, social embarrassment and depression. Ware wrote and illustrated the book. He is best known for a series of comics called the Acme Novelty Library, and incidentally, this graphic novel.

First and foremost, Jimmy Corrigan has a very unique style. The first thing you notice is the thick line weight, the very geometric design of the illustrations, and the thick, opaque colors used. The illustrations do not contain any fine detail. What Ware uses is subtle shifts in line weight. What Ware also does well is capturing the different shapes of the figures as they walk, talk, move their head, turn around, etc. This, along with adding slight blocks of color for shadows, really gives the illustrations depth and distance when there seemingly couldn't be. People, objects, buildings, the sky, the weather, etc. are all drawn in a very minimalist nature. Everything is given the simplest shape possible yet you know exactly what you are looking at, just by where certain lines bend and curve.

The colors used for illustrations are relatively drab. Every color is a sort of soft, pastel like color, which gives the illustrations a very unobtrusive feel. This color palette fits the story nicely considering the story is rather drab and depressing. The colors do a good job of setting the mood and bringing you into Jimmy Corrigan's life as well as mind state. With that said, what I found rather interesting was how Ware used the color red. Unlike the other colors, red was bright and strong, and at times really jumped off the page. For the most part it was used for sound effects, which although sounds like a relatively simple idea, I thought was a really good representation of them. Red was also used for narration as well, such as words "And", "Thus", "But", and "Suddenly". They were used almost as a guide at times, to really keep the story going,

Another technical aspect of the work is the integration of various kinds of text. You have your typical cartoon "bubbles" for the dialogue and thoughts of the characters. You also have your typical sound-effects text as well. There are a few unique uses of text: one is use of cursive lettering in parts of the story. These scenes aren't really Jimmy's daydreams nor are they his full fledge dreams. They are much more like whimsical, fantasy like thoughts. They are also used at times as narration as well as representing Jimmy's thoughts.

Another unique use of text is his use of early-20th century lettering. Ware applies this to the poster/flyer like images entitled "Jimmy Corrigan, Smartest Kid on Earth", which are sprinkled throughout the book. Another instance of this is when he is talking about the past, more specifically Jimmy's grandfather's childhood. The text is both technically and beautifully done. Although they are necessary to the style and the story, it is interesting to note that Ware is an ardent ragtime enthusiast who publishes a journal on ragtime music, collects ragtime paraphernalia, and has even designed album art and posters for ragtime performers (jackhanley.com). This is all pretty apparent and really comes out in Jimmy Corrigan.

Several images reoccur throughout the book and tie together the plotlines: superheroes, birds, broken limbs, guns, peaches, redheads, the Fair, and Jimmy Corrigan. The images bind the story together and reiterate the similarities between the Jimmies of each generation (findarticles.com). For example, the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893 represents the imaginary world that the Corrigans inhabit. A world thrown together, that looked great for the two weeks of the fair and then collapsed into sudden ruin. Each character has a very brief childhood where everything looks fine until the harsh reality crashes through the illusion, ending childhood (i-reports.info). None of the Corrigans seem able to break the bonds of their past. Jimmy tries to make a connection to his father, but cannot seem to make any human connection.

The superhero image is the one reoccurring image that really stands out throughout the book. Jimmy himself wears a Superman shirt. Jimmy imagines himself a bird flying outside of the clinic like Superman, and when a bird crashes into the window, we are back with Jimmy in the clinic, back to reality. In Jimmy Corrigan, superheroes are not invincible. A "superhero" jumps from the rooftop across from Jimmy's office building and dies. A toy Superman that a child plays with at a diner dives to the floor. Jimmy's dad picks it up to give back to the child, commenting how we would not want Superman to get hurt (findarticles.com). And in the first couple pages of the book you have a young Jimmy meeting a "superhero" at a comic book convention. The "superhero" then goes home with Jimmy and his mom and subsequently sleeps with his mom, and then sneaks out in the morning. Not exactly something Superman would do, maybe Batman, but not Superman.

Ware does a great job of connecting the past with the present. One example is how the book spans the time from Jimmy's great-grandfather in 1863 to the present; the different time changes are illustrated through a particular visual sequence of a bird gathering nest materials by various hospitals (findarticles.com). This bird is seen first collecting a flowered twig around a war-zone tent-hospital, then by a hospital building in the 1890s, next at Lincoln Hospital in the 1930s, then at St. Mary's in the 1950s, and finally placing the twig in a nest on the windowsill of a present-day "doc-in-a-box" where Jimmy waits with a bloody nose (findarticles.com). You have a sense that it is the same bird reflecting on times gone by, as well as different birds from different times.

Ware uses a variety of narrative techniques. These techniques vary from panel to panel. Ware uses one of the more basic panel-to-panel transitions called simply "moment to moment"; the same subject is displayed in adjacent instants, like a movie running jerkily on a slow computer (McCloud chapt. 3). This is basically used to animate the story and give it some fluidity. Ware also uses transitions very similar to "moment to moment", one being "action to action", in which the focus remains on