Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
by Chris Ware
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Book Summary Information
Author: Chris WareEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-04-29
ISBN: 0375714545
Number of pages: 380
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Reviews of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
Book Review: Mom! He Said To Tell You He Had A Real Good Time!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was not at all well versed in the "graphic novel" until recently when I read Batman the Dark Knight Returns. I enjoyed it enough to where I decided to seek out all different kinds of comics over the past six months or so.
Which brings me up to Jimmy Corrigan...
It's gotten plenty of positive press and it was even one of the books that Amazon recommended after I searched for graphic novels through the web site.
Since I'm not exactly well to do, I obtained a battered copy from my local public library about two weeks ago. The first time I read it, I had gotten about half-way through and I was a little confused and underwhelmed. But something about the art-work and the characters kept me going until I found myself studying the family tree of Ware's fictional characters for at least half an hour!
Next, I did something that I haven't done before. I immediately re-read the entire book; only this time much more S-L-O-W-L-Y.
Now I am buying a copy from Amazon. Even though I just read it twice!
Update to review
I received my hardcover copy of Jimmy Corrigan from Amazon and I am extremely happy with it. I was planning on purchasing the paperback edition, which was what my library had, but I noticed that the binding of the paperback copy that I had borrowed was falling to pieces. So I reluctantly spent the extra ten dollars on the hardcover edition--which turned out to be a fortuitous decision. First of all, the hardcover edition appears to be slighty larger; and anyone who has read Chris Ware's stuff knows that he loves to use miniscule typeface.(Listen to me. I read Jimmy Corrigan a couple of times and I'm a Chris Ware expert now!) And, even better, the hardcover edition had a fold-out dust-jacket that is worth the extra ten dollars all by itself.
Actually, I purchased McSweeny's Quarterly Concern 13 after learning that it is a compilation of Ware's favorite comics; and I was more amazed by the design of the dust jacket and the pretty gold-leafing than I was by the contents of the book!(What did I expect? It's just a "best-of" compilation.) I'm really not someone who believes that the book itself needs to be an objet d'art, but I still can't stop looking at the packaging of these Chris Ware books. The cover of that Mc Sweeny's book makes me wanna buy another copy just so that I can frame the cover. (By the way, the McSweeny's book also contains miniscule typeface.)
Printed on rag paper, Jimmy Corrigan is a five-star work. But this is like having a favorite photograph matted and framed to an exact specification.
Of course, it's printed in China--which explains the amazing price. (I love Cheap Chinese Labor! Hooray for the underpaid!)
I normally would not waste a review talking about the quality of the packaging, but this is not a typical comics presentation. Besides, this is a book that is best explained by handing someone a copy to read. I seriously consider this book a literary milestone. Reading this was like reading Slaughterhouse Five or Of Mice And Men for the first time. (Go ahead and scoff.)
Summary of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
This first book from Chicago author Chris Ware is a pleasantly-decorated view at a lonely and emotionally-impaired "everyman" (Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth), who is provided, at age 36, the opportunity to meet his father for the first time. An improvisatory romance which gingerly deports itself between 1890's Chicago and 1980's small town Michigan, the reader is helped along by thousands of colored illustrations and diagrams, which, when read rapidly in sequence, provide a convincing illusion of life and movement. The bulk of the work is supported by fold-out instructions, an index, paper cut-outs, and a brief apology, all of which concrete to form a rich portrait of a man stunted by a paralyzing fear of being disliked.From the Hardcover edition.
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