Formal Blog.

Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan the smartest kid on earth is a graphic comic narrative of the life of a kid, Jimmy Corrigan, through different stages in life. It was a social commentary attacking our stereotypical views on comics and some social norms. The book offered very little words, rather a pictorial dramatization of event coupled with parts of speech, a vast assortment of sounds.

In the text, Ware took advantage of the different parts of speech in various contexts, some of the panels were linked by adverbs which serve the purpose of modifying what was said or about to be said, and sometimes he repeatedly used conjunctions to connect panels to create a sense of continuity for the reader. Wares’ crafty use of these parts of speech boosts the effectiveness of the novel while maintaining its comical identity even as it vocalizes the ensuing events.

Ware also used and array of sounds further limiting the quantity of words used in the novel. Sound stood as a representation of jimmy’s emptiness and a crafty way of limiting the volume of words used in the novel. This amplifies what is otherwise quite in our world because of Jimmy’s loneliness and boredom. Although these sounds weren’t exclusively used in contexts with just jimmy, it still showed the emptiness in jimmy’s life amplified everything else. Since Jimmy’s social contact revolved around the phone, most times it phone rings with jimmy in the panel and when he wasn’t Ware depicted the phone looking for Jimmy.

The text, Jimmy Corrigan the smartest kid on earth was an unconventional spatial narrative circumspectly depicted by Chris Ware.