Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth

National Forum, Summer 2001 by Kloberg, Laura J

CHRIS WARE. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. Pantheon Books, New York, 2000. 380 pages. $27.50.

Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan is a compilation of individual comic strips published over a period of several years. It is a remarkable visual treat, a book in which intricate drawings convey the story of three generations of Corrigans. The overall story is about a young man who lacks confidence and a sense of self-worth. When the book begins, he is looking for love and happiness at a time in his life when he chooses to meet his estranged father of thirty years.

Jimmy Corrigan first began in 1993 as a weekly comic strip in the Chicago newspaper New City, and was meant to take only a summer to complete. Five years later Chris Ware found himself stuck "in the swampy muck of a 'story' which now seemed to have no end in sight, and, even worse, likely no point . . .." Despite Ware's feeling of being trapped, however, another year later the story was completed and ready to be published as a book.

For me, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth had an immediate visual appeal. The title itself is intriguing, and the graphic style is clean and crisp, stylized, yet it has great detail; it is crowded with images but not cluttered. All parts of the book lend to the rich visual mix. The book jacket itself is a work of art. When positioned around the book, it has upside-down type that lets you know there is no definite direction and which calls out to you to explore it further. It is cleverly composed and is loaded with illustrations and diagrams. You find yourself unfolding the jacket to study its many parts. Unfolded, it is a two-sided poster that maps a journey through time, illustrating Jimmy Corrigan's family lineage and history as well as providing an introspective journey into his thoughts. The jacket contains some narrative description as well. And if you don't have enough to contemplate, Ware also offers the possibility of cutouts that the reader can construct of Jimmy's world: the Zoetrope at the beginning, the house and yard where the first Jimmy (the grandfather) Corrigan grew up, and Jimmy Corrigan himself on the cover.

In addition, found in the end pages at the beginning of the book are instructions and descriptions in tiny type to help those who are not familiar with cartoon illustrations to follow this pictographic narrative. The end pages at the back of the book offer an apology and definitions.

Chapter (title) breaks emphasize Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth and add nice graphic pauses. As the story opens, we are still wondering who this Jimmy is and what makes him so smart. Chris Ware's use of flashbacks and dream sequences lets the reader know more of the whole story and more about Jimmy by allowing us to see what is in his mind. As the story unfolds, we begin to see the irony of the title. The truth is that Jimmy has tremendously low self-esteem and often fantasizes about being a superhero.

Several images reoccur throughout the book and tie together the plotlines: superheroes, birds, broken limbs, guns, peaches, redheads, and Jimmy Corrigan. The three generations of Jimmies look virtually the same, so if you are not paying close attention to the changing time periods, it is easy to become confused. The images bind the story together and reiterate the similarities between the Jimmies of each generation.

The superhero image occurs throughout the book. Jimmy himself wears a Superman shirt. Jimmy imagines himself a bird flying outside of the clinic like Superman, and when a bird crashes into the window, we are back with Jimmy in the clinic, back to reality. But in this comic world, superheroes are not invincible. A "superhero" jumps from the rooftop across from Jimmy's office building and dies. A toy Superman that a child plays with at a diner dives to the floor. Jimmy's dad picks it up to give back to the child, commenting how we would not want Superman to get hurt.

Of particular interest is the way Chris Ware has connected the past with the present. The book spans the time from Jimmy's great-grandfather in 1863 to the present; the different time changes are illustrated through a particular visual sequence of a bird gathering nest materials by various hospitals. This bird is seen first collecting a flowered twig around a war-zone tent-hospital, then by a hospital building in the 1890s, next at Lincoln Hospital in the 1930s, then at St. Mary's in the 1950s, and finally placing the twig in a nest on the windowsill of a present-day "doc-in-a-box" where Jimmy waits with a bloody nose. You have a sense that it is the same bird reflecting on times gone by, as well as different birds from different times.

Ware uses other visual devices to connect the present with the past. For example, my favorite two frames come just as Jimmy and his father are leaving the clinic where Jimmy has been treated for his bloody nose. The walls of the clinic are drab green, and Jimmy's father suggests to the doc that perhaps the walls should be painted a different color, and that he would be glad to get him an estimate. The doctor's response is that he kind of likes it that way because "when you get outside, everything takes on this sort of pinkish-peach color." When they step outside, Jimmy's father asks "Does everything look sort of PINK to you?" As they stand on the left page, which is yellowish green, the opposite page is pinkish, and we have been transported back to the 1890s.