Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth

I read Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. I really enjoyed the stories with the main character, Jimmy, as a little boy. The story would cut between Jimmy as a kid, a middle aged man, and an old man. I didn’t really like the stories about Jimmy as a man or old man. They were some-what confusing and a bit depressing. I can’t tell how the different stories are supposed to relate or if they’re suppose to relate at all. Jimmy as a child is very smart and invents rockets, shrinking potions, and new dads; things we know are most likely just figments of his imagination. The older Jimmy mopes around talking to his dead mother. He attempts to meet women but they never like him. It seems like the little boy version of Jimmy is nothing like the older version. Boy Jimmy is smart and creative. He makes wild adventures for himself. Older Jimmy is bland and pitiful. Maybe Ware is trying to show how people lose that childhood spark. Even amazing children can turn out to be losers. Getting to the art style of the book, I thought it was well drawn. The panels were very tight. What I mean by this is that Ware didn’t draw outside the panels or leave a panel without a border. They were all drawn in thick, black lines. The characters and backgrounds were also drawn with thick, black lines that didn’t waver. It seemed to fit the rehearsed, monotonous lifestyle of the older Jimmy. I thought it was strange how Ware never showed any of the women’s faces. It’s as if Jimmy is so detached from women that to show their faces would be unreal. I like the page with the house drawn on it and where arrows directed my eyes through the phone call Jimmy was making to his mother. I thought it was well conceived. I didn’t however like the fact that there wasn’t a starting arrow. I didn’t know which part to read first. So, I guess overall the book was well conceived and drawn out, yet the story to me was very annoying. I didn’t want to read about this sad, old guy who didn’t have anyone in his life.