Product Description

A comic/graphic novel that won the Guardian First Book Award 2001. It is the first graphic novel to win a major British literary prize.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16107 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Time Out
‘...a dazzlingly handsome book with every detail lovingly attended..demanding, disturbing, funny and exciting. Oh yes, and essential.’

Dave Eggers, New York Times Book Review
‘Ware is the most versatile and innovative artist the medium has known…arguably the greatest achievement of the form ever.'

Art Spiegelman, author of Maus
‘This new book seems to be another milestone in the demonstration of what comics can be.’

Customer Reviews

Haunting. And very funny.
Don't listen to those people who have badmouthed Jimmy Corrigan. Their criticisms are, to be honest, infantile at best. Indeed, this print of the book repeats the misgivings of Tom Paulin, ultra-pretentious critic (and poet) from the Newsnight review.

"Awful, bleak colours; disgusting to look at," he wails.

I'm having none of it; Jimmy Corrigan is one of the most heart rending pieces of literature that I have ever read. And it also manages to be extremely funny.

The story revolves around Jimmy Corrigan who meets up with his long-lost father. Don't be fooled by the simple premise. This is heavy stuff.

The story builds slowly but I found it incredibly compelling. For my money, anyone who describes the pacing as 'slow' or 'boring' is being incredibly churlish. This is about atmosphere and emotion, not car chases and explosions.

The artwork is sumptuous throughout and Mr. Ware achieves a marvellously cohesive look that complements his bleak outlook superbly. (And yes, Mr. Paulin, I think the colours are great.)

Jimmy Corrigan features an especially acidic view of childhood, and these moments provide the book with some of its bleakest scenes. Be warned; this book does not provide an easy ride. At times it is heartbreakingly cruel. But there is real humanity in this work and, if nothing else, it provides an unforgiving snapshot of modern society.

Brilliant.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Who would have thought that I'd be moved to tears by a series of artfully arranged lines on a piece of paper? I'd been told that Jimmy Corrigan was a work of genius, that it broke the rules of not only what constituted a comic book, but a "book" book. But nobody told me quite how emotionally rich it would be, ironic since Chris Ware deals primarily with emotionally unavailable characters. The tragedies which Jimmy encounters are everyday ones, and in some ways the books shares similar spirit to "Death of A Salesman", where tragedies occur in tiny increments as opposed to a tidal wave of despair which sweeps away all in its path.

For comic lovers it's a great way to reacquaint yourself with the possibilities that the stalwart medium can and still promises to offer. It's also the best argument yet for the "legitimisation" of comic books, especially since at 384 pages it can be used to cudgel naysayers into submitting to your superior logic.

The most innovative and moving comic book I've ever read
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth is the story of a lonely man living in Chicago who is contacted out of the blue by his long lost father. He visits his Father, but the whole encounter is fraught with anxiety and the kind of painful domestic awkwardness that comics rarely attempt to capture. What makes Chris Ware's semi-autobiographical tale unique is the way in which this apparently simple story is embroidered with Jimmy's daydreams and fantasies (many involving a paunchy 'Superman', and a disturbing, Kafka-esque dream where he becomes a tin robot) .

Ware also interrupts his tale to introduce episodes from the childhood of Jimmy's Grandfather. Anyone hoping for some light relief from the tragedy of Jimmy Corrigan's contemporary plight will be dissapointed; beloved Grandmothers die, youthful dreams are crushed, and a mishapen lead horse is lost in the snow.

There are also several diagrams showing the complex and fragile relationships that make up the Corrigan family tree. It's also manages to be very funny. In its serialised form, Jimmy Corrigan featured several parodies of the old 'Charles Atlas' type ads that used to pepper cheap American Comics. The beautifuly drawn and coloured illustrations knowingly suggest a more innocent era, and the reader is constantly reminded of the pathos of a brightly coloured comic that depicts such sad and loveless lives.

'Jimmy Corrigan' is a truly groundbreaking 'comic book' and demands the dusting off of such hackneyed phrases as 'masterpiece', even if its hero would blush at hearing it described as such.