Jimmy Corrigan The Smartest Kid On Earth

The first book from the Chicago author of the “stunning” Building Stories (The New York Times) is a pleasantly-decorated view at a lonely and emotionally impaired "everyman," who is provided, at age 36, the opportunity to meet his father for the first time. “This haunting and unshakable book will change the way you look at your world.” —Time magazine “There’s no writer alive whose work I love more than Chris Ware.” —Zadie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Swing Time An improvisatory romance which gingerly deports itself between 1890's Chicago and 1980's small town Michigan, the reader is helped along by thousands of colored illustrations and diagrams, which, when read rapidly in sequence, provide a convincing illusion of life and movement. The bulk of the work is supported by fold-out instructions, an index, paper cut-outs, and a brief apology, all of which concrete to form a rich portrait of a man stunted by a paralyzing fear of being disliked.

This first book from Chicago author Chris Ware is a pleasantly-decorated view at a lonely and emotionally-impaired "everyman" (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth), who is provided, at age 36, the opportunity to meet his father for the first time. An improvisatory romance which gingerly deports itself between 1890's Chicago and 1980's small town Michigan, the reader is helped along by thousands of colored illustrations and diagrams, which, when read rapidly in sequence, provide a convincing illusion of life and movement. The bulk of the work is supported by fold-out instructions, an index, paper cut-outs, and a brief apology, all of which concrete to form a rich portrait of a man stunted by a paralyzing fear of being disliked.

An assessment of the achievement and aesthetic of one of America's brightest comics innovators

In Chris Ware's own words, 'Building Stories follows the inhabitants of a three-flat Chicago apartment house: a thirty-year-old woman who has yet to find someone with whom to spend the rest of her life; a couple who wonder if they can bear each other's company for another minute; and finally an elderly woman who never married and is the building's landlady...' The scope, the ambition, the artistry and emotional heft of this project are beyond anything even Chris Ware has achieved before.

For the first time in his career, Chris Ware presents a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes autobiographical visual monograph, and opens a revealing window into the worlds he inhabits. Similar to Chip Kidd Book One and Shepard Fairey Covert to Overt, this book serves as a personal chronicle of a contemporary iconic illustrator, and is a must-have for those interested in illustration, graphic novels, and pop culture. The first and much-anticipated monograph by multi-award-winning cartoonist and graphic novelist Chris Ware, chronicling his influential twenty-five-year career.

What would happen if William Faulkner, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Eugene O'Neill drew masterful strips for their Sunday comics pages? This volume provides eye-tearingly beautiful depictions of longing, despair, melancholy, disappointment, bleakness, lethargy, abandonment, and relentless parental cruelty.

This newest edition features the first serial installment of "Rusty Brown," Ware's first major lengthy "narrative indulgence" since his Jimmy Corrigan graphic novel. Full color.

"Duncan is set in a world almost exactly like ours, except that all animals can talk. Humans still have dominion over everything, and a lot of animals aren't too happy about it; they also see the world in very different ways from each other, and from people"--Publishers Weekly.