Chris Ware (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780300102918)

A close-up look at the gifted graphic novelist the New York Times Book Review called "the most versatile and innovative artist the medium has ever known."

As one of today's most renowned cartoonists, Chris Ware is widely considered an artist of genius. Combining innovative comic book art, hand lettering, and graphic design, Ware's uniquely appealing work is characterized by ceaseless experimentation with narrative and graphic forms. The publication of his novel Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth in2000 inspired a near avalanche of praise from critics and general readers alike. This book is the first to explore the life and work of Chris Ware.

Daniel Raeburn looks closely at Ware's career, work methods, and artistic innovations. Born in Omaha in 1967, Ware introduced the character Jimmy Corrigan in a full-page strip he began writing for the Chicago tabloid New City. Combining six years' worth of the strips, Ware created the best-selling novel named after Jimmy that spans an Irish-American family's life in Chicago from the Civil War to the present. For its experiments in graphic form--including pull-out, three-dimensional inserts--and its non-chronological narrative, the novel earned numerous honors, among them the Guardian First Book Award, presented for the first time to a comic book.

For this volume Raeburn interviewed Chris Ware for many hours to make fascinating connections between Jimmy Corrigan's fictional life and the life of his creator. Raeburn discusses the scope of Ware's career, including his drawings for New City, the New Yorker, and his own comic book, The Acme Novelty Library. AsRaeburn shows, Ware's unique art form extends beyond the world of graphic novels into the broader worlds of literature, graphic art, and popular culture, and challenges traditional definitions of all three.

Author: Daniel Raeburn
ISBN-10: 0300102917
ISBN-13: 9780300102918
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 10/11/2004
Pages: 112
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.01lbs
Size: 9.40h x 7.58w x 0.44d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 11/15/2004 pg. 541
Choice 03/01/2005 pg. 1216
Library Journal 10/25/2004