I'm not sure how to put into words what I think about Chris Ware's work. If you had a chance to check out KRAZY! at the Vancouver Art Gallery, you probably remember Ware's work. His posters are graphic labyrinths, that challenge the reader to keep up with the output from his encyclopaedic mind. It pushes the illustrated form into entirely new places, while still honoring the masters who came before him. I was most struck by a Thanksgiving cover he did for the New Yorker. Wanting more, I bought an edition of the Acme Novelty Library (vol. 18), which you can check out here. It's not often I feel joy reading about a lonely amputee but Chris Ware touches something right. He is a mind that is unlike anyone else's out there. Brilliant storytelling and an ability to communicate loneliness that is rarely matched. I never thought a comic or graphic novel could be this good but here I am shouting it from the rooftops, "CHRIS WARE IS A GENIUS !"
This week, I picked up the 380-page monster that is his opus, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. Jimmy Corrigan is some what autobiographical. The hero is a man in his late thirties who meets his father for the first time. The story is interposed with the story of Jimmy's grandfather and his father, set against the opening of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Every page, every frame, every stroke is deliberate and mind-blowingly smart. Even the dust jacket is a full-sized poster that would take the average Joe a year to put together. I demolished Jimmy Corrigan, devoured it, delighted in it.
I'd give you a taste but I think it's best if you just go read it yourself.
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