I have never felt so much pain in reading a graphic novel. Although this may sound like the beginnings of a bad review, the pain is not from the reading but from the emotions provided by the life and times of Jimmy Corrigan. Chris Ware has created a masterpiece of visual storytelling in Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. I was truly blown away with the way in which Ware handles the unlimited space of the graphic novel. At times when some comics would fill pages with dialogue, Ware seems to understand that dramatic pauses and silence can tell a story just as well. Beyond the visual inventiveness lies a story that does not fall flat like so many graphic novels that are trying to challenge the visual and textual nature of the format. Even though the novel itself is a tome, I was never bored. It’s clear to me that Ware has given the comics world a unique view into the possibilities of comics.
I really just need to discuss to aspects of this novel that really place it in the upper echelon of sequential art. The first being the amazing way in which Ware deals with the space of a comic. The artwork itself is not overdone, but yet still is clean and clear. I also enjoyed the flow of the frames from one image to the next. As I mentioned in my review of Understanding Comics, the gutter remains an important place for ideas within a comic, and Ware has a unique grasp of when to keep the gutter clean and when to leave it convoluted. Typically, it never takes me long to read a comic or graphic novel because the pacing is very fast. However, Ware slows me down in my reading. This is a very good characteristic because it forces me as the reader to pause and contemplate to visual images I am gazing at. It isn’t enough to just have a pretty picture, but it is enough to have a thought provoking one. The style is refreshing in its simplicity, but yet including a cut-out and fold-up family house. The closest feeling I ever had to this experience was reading MAD Magazine and enjoying the cartoons in the gutters by Sergio Argones. Aside from the style, the story itself is more than enough to carry the novel. We follow Jimmy through his life, from a child to and adult meeting his long lost father. We are also given flashbacks to his father and his father’s father. It is a sad tale that reaffirms life and the uneasiness of history. I’ll grant you that this is not normal fair for a graphic novel, but that’s what makes this great alongside something like Maus. The emotion Ware elicits from his readers is an honest mixture of sadness, happiness, and care. We feel like Jimmy when he is waiting to see his father for the first time as we daydream about his possible looks. We are Jimmy when his mother calls him for the twentieth time to see why he is not at work. Jimmy is an everyman that forces the reader to ride along in his head. I think that one ability moves this from a “comic” into solid literature. As I have said before, just because it has pictures does not mean it’s for kids (okay so maybe I have not said that here before but I have said it before)
Chris Ware has created a great introduction in the world of the non-superhero graphic novel. It’s just a shame that more people have not taken the opportunity to sit down and read it. So I’ll continue my campaign for equal rights of the graphic novel. And I won’t be ashamed to use Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth as one of my best examples of what sequential art can be.
