Subject: (urth) Book recommendation: Jimmy Corrigan

From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 23:08:28 +0000

I didn't chime in during the "who's a catholic" discussion. I'm not 
one, but my tastes in reading are.

I know there are some other people on this list who like reading 
comic books, oops, I mean a graphic novels, so I feel it is 
appropriate to strongly recommend _Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid 
on Earth_ by Chris Ware, which I have just finished reading.

I am mentioning it on this list because I feel there are certain 
resonances between Gene Wolfe's work and Chris Ware's. They share a 
certain formality of tone and Ware also makes you do your fair share 
(or more) of the work in figuring out what is going on in the story.

Ware's protagonist is much more dysfunctional than most of Wolfe's 
characters and his story is more grim tahn many. Ware's book also is 
not science fiction or fantasy, although it certainly draws on these 
genres.

I think very highly of Scott McCloud's 1993 book _Understanding 
Comics_, in fact I would go so far as to say that I think it is a 
work of genius. One of McCloud's themes is that comics can accomplish 
things that can be done in no other medium. If you want a 
demonstration that this is true, read _Jimmy Corrigan_.

William Ansley

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/