Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth

Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth

Hardback cover
Author	Chris Ware
Illustrator	Chris Ware
Cover artist	Chris Ware
Country	U.S.
Language	English
Genre	Graphic novel
Publisher	Pantheon Books
Publication date	2000
Media type	paperback
Pages	380
ISBN	0-375-71454-5
OCLC	52190804
Dewey Decimal	741.5/973 22
LC Class	PN6727.W285 J56 2002

Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth is a widely acclaimed graphic novel by Chris Ware, published in 2000. The story was previously serialized in the pages of Ware's comic book Acme Novelty Library, between 1995 and 2000 and previous to that, in the alternative Chicago weekly New City.

Plot summary

Jimmy Corrigan is a meek, lonely middle aged man who meets his father for the first time in a Michigan town over Thanksgiving weekend. Jimmy is an awkward and cheerless character with an overbearing mother and a very limited social life. Jimmy attempts to escape his unhappiness via an active imagination that gets him into awkward situations. A parallel story set in the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 shows Jimmy's grandfather as a lonely little boy and his difficult relationship with an abusive father, Jimmy's great grandfather. Another storyline shows Jimmy as a lonesome child of divorce, suggesting that this was Jimmy's "real" childhood, while his "Smartest Kid on Earth" adventures are probably his fantasies.

Autobiographical content

Elements of the novel appear to be autobiographical, particularly Jimmy's relationship with his father. Ware met his father only once in adulthood—while he was working on this book—and has remarked that his father's attempts at humor and casualness were not unlike those he'd already created for Jimmy's father in the book. However, the author states it is not an account of his personal life.

Storytelling techniques

The novel uses numerous flashback scenes and parallel storylines. Many pages are devoid of text, and some contain complex iconic diagrams. Notable leitmotifs in Jimmy Corrigan include a robot, a bird, a peach, a miniature horse, and a flawed superhero figure.

Appearances in other Ware works

In addition to the graphic novel, the character of Jimmy Corrigan has appeared in other Ware comic strips, sometimes as his imaginary child genius character, sometimes as an adult. Corrigan began as a child genius character in Ware's early work, but as Ware continued, the child genius strips appeared less frequently, and increasingly followed Corrigan's sad, adult existence.

Recognition

Jimmy Corrigan has been lauded by critics. The New Yorker cited it as "the first formal masterpiece of (the) medium." It has received numerous awards, including:

• The Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Graphic Novel
• The American Book Award, 2001
• The Guardian First Book Award, 2001, "the first time a graphic novel has won a major UK book award," according to the Guardian.
• The Harvey Awards' Special Award for Excellence in Presentation and Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work, 2001
• The Eisner Awards' Best Publication Design and Best Graphic Album: Reprint, 2001
• The Angoulême Festival's Prize for Best Comic Book, 2003
• The ACBD's Prix de la critique, 2003
• In 2005, Time chose it as one of the 10 best English language, graphic novels ever written.

Family Guy similarities

Several commentators, including Ware himself, have noted similarities between Seth MacFarlane's Stewie Griffin character from the animated series Family Guy and Jimmy Corrigan. Ware has remarked, "[The similarities are] a little too coincidental to be simply, well, coincidental." He further stated, "I don't want a book of seven years' worth of my stuff to become available and then be accused of being a rip-off of Family Guy." 20th Century Fox insists that Stewie is an entirely original character. In a 2003 interview, Seth MacFarlane said that he had never seen the comic strip before, described the similarities as "pretty shocking" and said that he could see how Ware would reach that conclusion."