Crushing banality in Jimmy Corrigan

Ware’s loosely autobiographical and widely acclaimed Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, is like the Ulysses of graphic novels. Meticulously crafted and as dense as the line at Val come 6:30, Ware’s graphic novel weaves three stories into one mashed up representation of a sad, socially inept man. At times, the complexity of the story telling makes it hard for the reader to make sense of the story. Ware jumps from Jimmy’s present (the plot revolving around his contact with his previously absent father), to flashbacks of Jimmy’s grandfather, James, to moments of Jimmy’s vivid imagination. Worth noting is Ware’s initial estrangement from his father while writing Jimmy’s character, his brief re-contact with his father, and before finishing the novel, his father’s untimely death.

Despite the oftentimes confusing plot threads, Ware does his best to guide the reader through the packed and unconventionally organized panels. The panels are often of varying sizes and shapes, and sometimes we even have to read from right to left. Lucky for us, Ware sometimes includes guiding arrows that direct us from scene to scene. Other times he fills the gutter with big transition words that give us both a sense of tone and time. Finally, he often allows art from one scene to bleed into others, connecting the scenes visually, literally drawing a bridge to guide our eyes.

Because Ware’s choices in his novel all seem so substantive, it’s easy to pick out a couple things to analyze. One aspect that has been discussed in blog posts on our course website is his choice to obscure many characters’ eyes and faces. Perhaps it is meant to put all the focus on Jimmy, but as Emily noted, how do we explain the fully represented face of the red-haired girl and Jimmy’s half-sister? Initially, I felt that obscuring the faces was a visual representation of Jimmy’s social awkwardness—literally unable to look people in the eyes.

In Peter Schjeldahl’s The New Yorker review, he called Jimmy’s father “a figure of crushing banality.” Ware does an incredible job in creating distinct and memorable characters in his novel, but for me, Jimmy’s father stood out. Schjeldahl hit it right on the head when he called him a figure of banality. The onslaught of dribble that pours from his mouth during the doctor’s visit is funny for a bit, but then just utterly annoying. Jimmy’s father seems delusional at points, a man who has convinced himself that his way of life is correct, that his beliefs are right, but so clearly holds no real gravitas (especially when juxtaposed or in conversation with the doctor). Ware brings out the reprehensible characteristics of an “ordinary” man in his drawing of Jimmy’s father. Because of the almost mythic quality Jimmy’s father held before we met him (the same mythic quality all long lost characters inevitably hold), such a lack of personality further indicates the absolutely depressing nature of Jimmy’s life.