Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: Honing the Hybridity of the Graphic Novel
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English 5-28-2009 Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: Honing the Hybridity of the Graphic Novel Dallas Dycus Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Recommended Citation Dycus, Dallas, "Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: Honing the Hybridity of the Graphic Novel." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2009. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/47 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CHRIS WARE‘S JIMMY CORRIGAN: HONING THE HYBRIDITY OF THE GRAPHIC NOVEL by DALLAS J. DYCUS, JR. Under the Direction of Michael Galchinsky ABSTRACT The genre of comics has had a tumultuous career throughout the twentieth century: it has careened from wildly popular to being perceived as the source of society‘s ills. Despite having been relegated to the lowest rung of the artistic ladder for the better part of the twentieth century, comics has been gaining in quality and respectability over the last couple of decades. My introductory chapter provides a broad, basic introduction to the genre of comics––its historical development, its different forms, and a survey of comics criticism over the last thirty years. In chapter two I clarify the nature of comics by comparing it to literature, film, and pictorial art, thereby highlighting its hybrid nature. It has elements in common with all of these, and yet it is a distinct genre. My primary focus is on Chris Ware, whom I introduce in chapter three, a brilliant creator who has garnered widespread recognition and respect. His magnum opus is Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, the story of four generations of Corrigan men, most of whom have been negligent in raising their children. Jimmy Corrigan, as a result, is an introverted, insecure thirty–something–year–old man. Among comics creators Ware is unusual in that his story does not address socio–political issues, like most of his peers, which I discuss in chapter four. Jimmy Corrigan is an isolated tale with a very specific focus. Ware‘s narrative is somewhat like those of William Faulkner, whose stories have a narrow focus, revolving around the lives of the inhabitants of Yoknapatawpha county, rather than encompassing the vast landscape of national socio–political concerns. Also, in chapter five I explore the intriguing combination of realist and Gothic elements––normally at opposite ends of the generic continuum––that Ware merges in Jimmy Corrigan. This feature is especially interesting because it is another way that his work explores aspects of hybridity. Finally, in my conclusion I examine the current state of comics in American culture and its future prospects for development and success, as well as the potential for future comics criticism. INDEX WORDS: Acme Novelty Library, Alternative comics, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Comic books, Comics, Comics Code Authority, Comics criticism, Confessional comics, Family dysfunction, Fredric Wertham, Gothic literature, Graphic narrative, Graphic novels, History of comics, Hybrid art forms, Jimmy Corrigan, Literature, Realist literary characteristics, Rhopography, Sequential art, Underground comix CHRIS WARE‘S JIMMY CORRIGAN: HONING THE HYBRIDITY OF THE GRAPHIC NOVEL by DALLAS J. DYCUS, JR. A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2009 Copyright by Dallas J. Dycus, Jr. 2009 CHRIS WARE‘S JIMMY CORRIGAN: HONING THE HYBRIDITY OF THE GRAPHIC NOVEL by DALLAS J. DYCUS, JR Committee Chair: Michael Galchinsky Committee: Chris Kocela Randy Malamud Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University August 2009 iv DEDICATION I would not have been able to manage the rigors of full–time employment and successful pursuit of the Ph.D. were it not for my wife. Thanks, Tammy, for your support and patience. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My pursuit of this degree was largely made possible through the assistance and encouragement of the staff, faculty, and administration of Atlanta Christian College. Thank you, Kevin, for your your ongoing support, advice, encouragement, and for suggesting this topic––why didn‘t I think of it?––in the first place. And finally, thank you, Michael, for your invaluable contributions. Under your direction I discovered for the first time what it means to really be a writer; you have forced me to grow in ways that I never could have on my own. You have both challenged me and encouraged me throughout this entire process. SDG vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO COMICS 1 Introduction 1 The Fundamental Nature of this Thing Called Comics 4 What‘s in a Name? 10 Broad Overview of Comics‘ Historical Development 13 Brief Survey of Recent Criticism 24 Conclusion 37 2. COMICS‘ PLACE WITHIN THE ARTISTIC LANDSCAPE 42 Introduction 42 Comics‘ Relationship to Literature 46 The Relationship of Comics to Film 62 Comics‘ Relationship to the Visual Arts 76 Conclusion 89 3. CHRIS WARE AND JIMMY CORRIGAN: AN INTRODUCTION 94 Introduction 94 Chris Ware‘s Background and Beginnings in Comics 96 Cartooning versus Drawing 101 The Tone of Chris Ware‘s Work 107 Symbolism in Jimmy Corrigan 111 vii Ware‘s Use of Color 114 Chris Ware‘s Visual Design 116 Chris Ware‘s Use of the Past 121 The Pacing of Ware‘s Comics 128 Conclusion 130 4. JIMMY CORRIGAN AND THE ADVENT OF THE POLITICIZED GRAPHIC 134 NOVEL Introduction 134 Comic Books as Counter Culture: Underground Comix 136 ―Ego Absolvo‖: The Confessional Graphic Novel 140 Taking a Stand: The Socio–political Graphic Novel 161 Conclusion 173 5. JIMMY CORRIGAN: A DIFFIDENTLY GOTHIC TALE 177 Introduction 177 The Family (dys)Fun(ction) of Gothic 180 Living with the Past 189 Gothic Monstrosity: Where Are Our Sympathies to Lie? 199 Coming of Age in a Haunted World: Gothic as Bildungsroman 210 The Brightly–lit Gothic Tale 218 Conclusion 222 6. CONCLUSION: COMICS‘ PRESENT AND FUTURE 225 The Struggle for Acceptance 225 Comics to Save the Day? The Crisis in Reading 228 viii Comics‘ Cultural Influence 231 The Contributions of Chris Ware 234 The Future of Comics: Shifting Attitudes 238 The Future of Comics: New Technology 240 The Future of Comics: New Paths of Progress 244 The Future of Comics: Cultural Expansion 247 The Future of Comics: Criticism 250 END NOTES 254 WORKS CITED 257 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Craig Thompson merges content with format; from his memoir Blankets. 10 Figure 2: George Harriman‘s Krazy Kat, October 10, 1920. 72 Figure 3: Lucas Cranach the Elder: Allegory of Law and Grace, c.1530. 78 Figure 4: Benjamin Franklin: Join, or Die, 9 May 1754. 79 Figure 5: Jacques–Louis David: Oath of the Horatii, 1784. 82 Figure 6: Tommy dePaola: Big Anthony: His Story, 1998. 87 Figure 7: An example of Chris Ware‘s early work. 99 Figure 8: Ware‘s panel transitions advance the story in small increments of time. 101 Figure 9: Ware devoted much of his early work to exploring the narrative capability of 102 pictures, without relying on text. Figure 10: Drawing versus cartooning. 103 Figure 11: Jimmy and his father come face–to–face for the first time. 104 Figure 12: Super–Man leaps to his death. 113 Figure 13: Ware‘s colors are subtle and provide emotional warmth that is largely missing 115 from the story itself. Figure 14: Ware‘s use of lexias: text that links ―not verbal sentences but illustrated events.‖ 118 Figure 15: Ware creates full–page vistas of extraordinary beauty. 119 Figure 16: The beauty of the past contrasts with the ugliness of our present surroundings. 120 Figure 17: Ware‘s visual conflation of past and present. 125 Figure 18: Amy‘s family tree is communicated quickly through visual means. 126 Figure 19: Three different chronological periods subdivide a single image. 127 Figure 20: Ware includes the innocuous sounds of everyday life. 129 Figure 21: Underground comix parodied romance comics as well as feminists. 139 x Figure 22: Bruce Wayne‘s prevarication in the present is interspersed with memories from 147 the past. Figure 23: Stylistic comparison of Maus to the earlier ―Prisoner on the Hell Planet.‖ 149 Figure 24: Spigelman struggles with anxiety despite the success of the first volume of Maus. 150 Figure 25: Bechdel renders her family‘s emotional aloofness in a visual manner. 165 Figure 26: Art Spiegelman: In the Shadow of No Towers. 167 Figure 27: Despite his outrage, Spiegelman is able to poke fun at himself. 168 Figure 28: Satrapi‘s socio–political observations. 174 Figure 29: Jimmy‘s anger and hostility are manifest through his fantasies. 186 Figure 30: When they are consumed by anger, Jean–Christophe‘s and Pierre–Francois‘ 204 faces become darkened. Figure 31: Caspar David Friedrich: Cloister Cemetery in the Snow, 1810. 219 Figure 32: Charles Burns: Black Hole. 220 Figure 33: Ware‘s depiction of the past is a place of visual beauty. 221 Figure 34: Chris Ware: self–portrait. 237 Figure 35: An example of ―rough wave‖ comics from Brian Chippendale‘s Ninja. 245 Figure 36: An example of Marc Bell‘s work from an exhibition, ―The Stacks,‖ in New 246 York City. Figure 37: Comic Strip: a surprisingly sophisticated presentation of comics‘ nature. 249 1 CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO COMICS Introduction The proclivity for finding patterns in nature and ascribing meaning to them seems to be as old as Homo sapiens—it is an integral aspect of human nature; when looking up into the night sky humans saw shapes in the stars and created stories to go along with them.