I’ve been binging the work of Chris Ware of late. Maybe because it’s been a depressing summer in a relentlessly depressing year but his craft of masterfully illustrating the minutae of life, frame by frame, through happiness and heartbreak has provided a strange sense of solace as the days of our lives start to feel both repetitive yet unpredictable.
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth
This is Chris Ware’s first work and is often regarded as revolutionizing the graphic novel medium. The tale centres around a meek, awkward character fearful of change and the unknown who lives a routine life of social isolation (outside of the relationship with his overbearing mother). As the story unfolds, Jimmy receives an invitation to meet his father who we learn abandoned him years earlier. The impacts of intergenerational trauma are explored against a time-travelling backdrop that goes back to the gorgeously illustrated Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. Jimmy Corrigan is probably my least favourite of Ware’s output but presents a good starting point to truly appreciate the later achievements of Rusty Brown and his magnum opus Building Stories.
Favourite line: “One’s memory, however, likes to play tricks after years of cold storage. Some recollections remain as fresh as the moment they were minted. While others seem to crumble into bits, dusting their neighbours with a contaminating not of uncertainty.”
Building Stories
Whenever someone asks me for a book recommendation, this is at the top of my list. It’s not so much a book, as it is an experience – a completely immersive visual, tangible and emotional journey through the lives of several individuals who at one time lived in the same apartment. At one point, the narrative is even told from the perspective of the building itself. I reviewed this back in February 2014 but bought it again after sharing my copy because it is THAT good.
Favourite line: all of it is a masterpiece. It is one of my top three books of all time.
Rusty Brown
Rusty Brown is Chris Ware’s latest and continues his study of regular people living regular lives, the secrets we keep and the unspoken desires we covet. It is a collection of comics about a few different characters who all intersect for a short time at a high school in Omaha, Nebraska, and how their interwoven journeys carry forward in time. There is a palpable ennui emanating from these pages; as with all of his work, the artwork is stunning but the emotional impact of the story itself is what remains with the reader. You don’t read Chris Ware when you want to feel good. You read his work when you simply want to feel.
Favourite line: the tale of “W.K. “Woody” Brown” and the soul-crushing glimpse into settling into a life of longing and regret.