Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth

Product Information

Flipping through the magnificent panels, amazed by the breath-taking minimalist beauty of each page, you are in awe at the visual marvels while at the same time you literally cannot wait for this guy to shut up. One day James and his father visit the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, climbing to an observation platform above one of the great halls. I particularly liked the way the "unreliable narrator" is visually represented - most memorably, when the grandfather remembers himself wearing a nightgown to the World's Fair, then corrects his own memory.

Jimmy Corrigan - Penguin Books UK

We, the unwashed, are wanting because we fail to see the flaws…and maybe they are there, but there is so so much more).

Maureen, who lives in Birstall, tells how James, a member of the Corrigan fairground family, achieved his vision for an entertainment venue which would attract the biggest stars in showbusiness and put Batley – and the north – on the map.

Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth - Wikipedia

The series won the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series of 1996 and 2000; Best New Graphic Album of 2000; and Best Publication Design of 1995, 1996, 1997, and 2002. This is how life unfolds in the mind of Jimmy Corrigan, the desolate main character in Chris Ware’s graphic novel.Even after Jimmy gets a letter from his absent father inviting him to come visit, the father and son’s time together suffers from Jimmy’s volatile mind. During the first, 30-year separation, Ware began to work out his anger and longing in a weekly comic strip, now brought together as a beautifully produced hardback. In the end, I'm glad I got through the book, which I'm certain I would not have were I picking it up on my own. Back in 2000, when I was all of 18, I remember being immensely moved by some of those first 100 pages; Jimmy’s fantasy of being murdered by Superman, in particular, overwhelmed me.