Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan : Honing the Hybridity of the Graphic Novel By DJ Dycus Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan : Honing the Hybridity of the Graphic Novel, by DJ Dycus This book first published 2012 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2012 by DJ Dycus All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-3527-7, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-3527-5 For my girls: T, A, O, and M TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures............................................................................................. ix CHAPTER ONE .............................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION TO COMICS The Fundamental Nature of this Thing Called Comics What’s in a Name? Broad Overview of Comics’ Historical Development Brief Survey of Recent Criticism Conclusion CHAPTER TWO ........................................................................................... 33 COMICS ’ PLACE WITHIN THE ARTISTIC LANDSCAPE Introduction Comics’ Relationship to Literature The Relationship of Comics to Film Comics’ Relationship to the Visual Arts Conclusion CHAPTER THREE ........................................................................................ 73 CHRIS WARE AND JIMMY CORRIGAN : AN INTRODUCTION Introduction Chris Ware’s Background and Beginnings in Comics Cartooning versus Drawing The Tone of Chris Ware’s Work Symbolism in Jimmy Corrigan Ware’s Use of Color Chris Ware’s Visual Design Chris Ware’s Use of the Past The Pacing of Ware’s Comics Conclusion viii Table of Contents CHAPTER FOUR ........................................................................................ 105 JIMMY CORRIGAN AND THE ADVENT OF THE POLITICIZED GRAPHIC NOVEL Introduction Comic Books as Counter Culture: Underground Comix “Ego Absolvo”: The Confessional Graphic Novel Taking a Stand: The Socio–political Graphic Novel Conclusion CHAPTER FIVE .......................................................................................... 139 JIMMY CORRIGAN : A DIFFIDENTLY GOTHIC TALE Introduction The Family (dys)Fun(ction) of Gothic Living with the Past Gothic Monstrosity: Where Are Our Sympathies to Lie? Coming of Age in a Haunted World: Gothic as Bildungsroman The Brightly–lit Gothic Tale Conclusion CHAPTER SIX ............................................................................................ 175 CONCLUSION : COMICS ’ PRESENT AND FUTURE The Struggle for Acceptance Comics to Save the Day? The Crisis in Reading Comics’ Cultural Influence The Contributions of Chris Ware The Future of Comics: Shifting Attitudes The Future of Comics: New Technology The Future of Comics: New Paths of Progress The Future of Comics: Cultural Expansion The Future of Comics: Criticism WORKS CITED .......................................................................................... 197 INDEX ....................................................................................................... 205 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Craig Thompson merges content with format; from his memoir Blankets . Figure 2: George Harriman’s Krazy Kat , October 10, 1920. Figure 3: Lucas Cranach the Elder: Allegory of Law and Grace , 1530. Figure 4: Benjamin Franklin: Join, or Die , 9 May 1754. Figure 5: Jacques–Louis David: Oath of the Horatii , 1784. Figure 6: Tommy dePaola: Big Anthony: His Story , 1998. Figure 7: An example of Chris Ware’s early work. Figure 8: Ware’s panel transitions advance the story in small increments of time. Figure 9: Ware devoted much of his early work to exploring the narrative capability of pictures, without relying on text. Figure 10: Jimmy and his father come face–to–face for the first time. Figure 11: Super–Man leaps to his death. Figure 12: Ware’s colors are subtle and provide emotional warmth that is largely missing from the story itself. Figure 13: Ware’s use of lexias: text that links “not verbal sentences but illustrated events.” Figure 14: Ware creates full–page vistas of extraordinary beauty. Figure 15: The beauty of the past contrasts with the ugliness of our present surroundings. Figure 16: Ware’s visual conflation of past and present. Figure 17: Amy’s family tree is communicated quickly through visual means. Figure 18: Three different chronological periods subdivide a single image. Figure 19: Ware includes the innocuous sounds of everyday life. Figure 20: Underground comix parodied romance comics as well as feminists. Figure 21: Bruce Wayne’s struggle in the present is interspersed with memories from the past. Figure 22: Stylistic comparison of Maus to the earlier “Prisoner on the Hell Planet.” Figure 23: Spigelman struggles with anxiety despite the success of the first volume of Maus . Figure 24: Bechdel renders her family’s emotional aloofness in a visual manner. Figure 25: Art Spiegelman: In the Shadow of No Towers . Figure 26: Despite his outrage, Spiegelman is able to poke fun at himself. Figure 27: Satrapi’s socio–political observations. Figure 28: When they are consumed by anger, Jean–Christophe’s and Pierre– Francois’ faces become darkened. Figure 29: Caspar David Friedrich: Cloister Cemetery in the Snow . Figure 30: Charles Burns: Black Hole . x List of Figures Figure 31: Ware’s depiction of the past is a place of visual beauty. Figure 32: Chris Ware: self–portrait. Figure 33: An example of “rough wave” comics from Brian Chippendale’s Ninja . Figure 34: An example of Marc Bell’s work from an exhibition, “The Stacks,” in New York City. Figure 35: Comic Strip: a surprisingly sophisticated presentation of comics’ nature. CHAPTER ONE 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. This was most likely the beginning, but examples of visual forms of communication span every habitable continent and every culture and every millennium since this beginning: Paleolithic cave paintings in Lascaux, France; Egyptian hieroglyphs; Doric and Ionic friezes on ancient Greek architecture; Trajan’s Column from the Roman Empire; Mayan temple carvings; Asian screen paintings; Gothic stained glass windows; the Bayeux Tapestry; and the Book of Kells. Just from these few examples, it is evident that “illustration has been an element of design throughout all mankind’s civilizations” (Perry and Aldridge 11). The importance of images certainly holds true for the twenty–first century as well. To a greater extent than any other point in human history, our field of vision is constantly bombarded with pictures in one form or another: magazines, television, advertisements on everything from buses to billboards, computer icons, posters, tee shirts, coffee mugs, calendars, greeting cards, book covers, camera phones, tattoos—the list goes on seemingly ad infinitum . In her article on William Blake’s works and how he significantly altered the reading experience, Carol Bigwood describes how he attempted to “bring the eye to a mode of fuller sentient contact” with the text, which “has become especially crucial in our postmodern times, for the principle [sic] way that we normally relate to the world is not only with the eye, but more specifically with the reading eye” (307). This increased element of graphic communication is affecting every aspect of our lives. And although its origins are not a recent development, images have even begun to creep into one of our most non–visual art forms: literature. Some might see this development as the end of Western 2 Chapter One civilization as we know it, but comic books have started showing up in public libraries, best–seller lists, and even college curricula. The “dumbing down” of America seems to have reached a new height––or low, as the case may be. Where can we place the blame? Have we simply let down our guard? Is this all Andy Warhol’s fault and the advent of pop art? Who is supposed to have been keeping watch over our cultural standards? Does the blame lie in our country’s apparently floundering––according to so many accounts––educational system? What I honestly find amazing today is that there are not nearly so many people asking these types of questions as there were even five or six years ago. I do not imagine that most of the adult population of the U.S. is familiar with the term graphic novel , much less with what it has come to mean, but these works are being reviewed in the New York Times Book Review , they are being used in college courses––even outside of the English department, and they are being read by people who might have never read a comic book before in their lives. I came to the same conclusion as Joseph Witek did in 1989; he writes that the “surprise is not that serious stories can be told in comic–book form but that such work took so long to attract attention of the general culture” (10). A philosopher interested in the field of aesthetics, David Carrier also expresses astonishment that comics have not generated more interest, “for they have a much larger audience and raise problems as interesting as paintings’”