Review: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2003 (originally 1995-2000)
Acquired January 2012
Previously read February 2012
Reread August 2013

The Smartest Kid on Earth, Jimmy Corrigan: An Improvisatory Romance, Pictographically Configured by Chris Ware

What struck me about Jimmy Corrigan on this reread (I am teaching the book to freshmen) was how difficult the beginning of it is, which quickly becomes smoothed out as the novel progresses. The early sections are replete with strange fantasies (Jimmy is a robot, Jimmy must kill a horse, Jimmy is an English gentlemen who drinks G&Ts on yachts), but these trickle away until we're left with just the parallel tracks of Jimmy and his Victorian ancestor. Part of the way through, though, Ware actually stops the story to spell out which bits are real; prior to that, I don't think there's any clue that Victorian Jimmy is actually real. By the end, though, the book is positively easy to comprehend. Is this just because Ware was making it up as he went along (it is "an improvisatory romance," after all), or is some other reason at work?

Journey Into Space

Comic hardcover, n.pag.
Published 2008 (content: 2002-04)
Borrowed from a friend
Read May 2012

The Acme Novelty Library, Number 19

by F. C. Ware

When a friend of mine here in Connecticut learned that I was reading Chris Ware's The Smartest Kid on Earth, Jimmy Corrigan, he offered to loan me this, an installment in Ware's occasional periodical series. He had found the book in a trash can in his apartment when he lived in Cincinnati, and rescued it only to realize that he shared his hometown of Omaha with Ware. He kept it, but felt compelled to hide it in his closet so he could avoid any awkward questions with his roommate about why he was taking stuff out of the trash. I don't know why it was thrown away, as it's perfectly intact.

It's also a tremendously good book. There are two halves; the first is a science fiction story about a colonization mission to Mars, while the second is about the writer of that story. The sf story ("The Seeing Eye Dogs of Mars") is a dark, disturbing descent for one of the four people on the space mission. Science fiction turns out to be a really good genre for Ware, allowing him to attach his human themes to cosmic anchors. It's a disturbing and heart-rending tale of isolation and obsession.

The second story tells us about the writer of "The Seeing Eye Dogs of Mars," W. K. Brown, an obituary writer in the 1950s, who is in a sexual relationship he doesn't really understand. It's very reminiscent of some of the material covered in Jimmy Corrigan, but it comes at it from a sufficiently different angle to work.

It goes without saying that 1) both stories are incredibly depressing, though not as much as Jimmy Corrigan, thank God, 2) the art is excellent, and Ware's style is particularly suited to 1950s sf for some reason, and 3) his use of panel size to generate emotional response is unparalleled.  Good stuff.

The Death of the Super-Man

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2003 (originally 1995-2000)
Acquired January 2012
Read February 2012

The Smartest Kid on Earth, Jimmy Corrigan: An Improvisatory Romance, Pictographically Configured

by Chris Ware

This may be the saddest book that I have ever read. Not in terms of how many sad things happen; there are plenty of books out there where tons of sad things happen. Sad things all over the place. No, Jimmy Corrigan is the saddest book that I have ever read in the sense that when I finished it, I felt utterly miserable, depressed, alone in the world. Very rarely has a book been capable of altering my emotional state as much as this one did. I could natter on a lot about how Chris Ware achieves this through his masterful use of the comics medium (I like how he keeps a figure the same size, but suddenly enlarges the panel to show how alone the character is; I like how he uses repeated imagery; I like how he has large, anchorless words float above the characters' heads right in the panels; I like how he parallels the present, the past, and fantasies, especially how he makes time pass in the latter), but I suspect wiser brains than mine have already explicated on this at length.

I do want to give a shoutout to two specific aspects of the story. The first is Ware's clever use of utopian motifs, in the 1893 Chicago Exposition (also known as "White City") and the appearances of Superman (looking like his 1930s self). Seeing these ostensibly triumphal figures in a story like this only makes everything worse, in a good way. They also edge Jimmy Corrigan from being the story of one man's loneliness to something bigger. As does the second thing I want to talk about: the text on the back of a set of depressing picture postcards from Waukosha, Michigan, a blackly humorous skewering of American values. (Actually, all the paratextual stuff is quite funny; I also enjoyed the mocking of literary folks who like comics on the inside front cover.)

I've been avoiding recommending this to people because of how it will make them feel, but it really is quite excellent. If you consider great literature to be something that moves you, be that positively or negatively, then pick up Jimmy Corrigan. (Then again, a friend of mine thinks it's one of the funniest books he's ever read, so what do I know?)