When first reading the title “Jimmy Corrigan – The Smartest Kid on Earth”, my first intuition what the book would be about was adventure. I thought Jimmy Corrigan was a young boy living at home with smart powers. Jimmy was, after the first couple pages, a middle age man with no life who talks to his mother all day. To my demise, it never got off that subject. Jimmy was not a super hero and was not the normal comic I thought it would be. Then, I decided to go online and find a comic book to compare and contrast “Jimmy Corrigan”. I picked Action Comic #1. This comic book has superman in it, so I decided to use superman. Superman was used in Jimmy Corrigan a lot as references to a father like figure and someone Jimmy Corrigan looked up to.
The first obvious differences in the two comics are the physical appearance of the two characters and the physical appearance of the words and pictures themselves. Jimmy Corrigan looks way older in appearance than his real age. He has saggy eyelids, always frowning, not in shape. Superman, on the other hand, looks younger than his age. He is in shape and is always smiling. The physical appearance of the comic itself is different, too. Superman is more of a comic book in that it uses a lot of cuts and breaks. It uses a lot of explanations marks and question marks. I feel like it’s never really calm its jumpy with just the colors blue, orange, red, blue – regular colors. It reads back and forth and its pretty apparent its supposed to be read that way. “Jimmy Corrigan”, on the other hand, reads more like a book to me. It has specific events where it shows you the comic more like a film role on a movie. For example, the part where he has a nose bleed in the hospital from getting hit from a truck it shows him holding his nose for a couple pages. The colors and the words are different because there a very intricate and looked like it took a lot of time each frame to make.
The second difference is the story line and how the story line is portrayed. Superman is an obvious linear progression. The plot is usually “To be continued” like I read in this particular comic. Superman usually has a bad guy and a damsel in distress. “Jimmy Corrigan” is all over the place. There are flashbacks, dreams, and of course linear story plots. It uses certain events in history like the Chicago fair in the 19th century. Jimmy doesn’t really have a bad guy. He himself could be the bad guy in trying to find himself. Superman usually does not show Superman doing things like going the bathroom or eating. Superman is more than just a man. Corrigan, however, is shown on the toilet, sleeping, on the phone with his mother. I think we can relate to Corrigan because he is kind of more like us in a way.
I think that Corrigan and Superman are two separate people and two separate genres of comic books. Corrigan is more personal, and Superman is more like a hero to us. Maybe that is why Superman is Corrigan’s father like figure in the comic book.
Question for whose proofreading mine : how to cite page numbers in Jimmy Corrigan and should I cite Superman at all??
3 comments:
You don't seem to be making any argument other than a compare and contrast with the two different comics. Yes, they are different in certain ways, but why? What do you think Ware is trying to do by showing his main character to be a tired old man instead of a fit young superhero, and what do you think is his reason for the page layout?
Also, in class we were told that this book is made up of a series of shorter comics that were published at different times. So, in a way this is similar to your example of the "to be continued..." only they are all put together. But again, what is the point of creating this storyline with dreams and flashbacks rather than in the classic comic book style?
On a lesser note, you have a couple grammatical errors which can be easily fixed. You should always reread your essay before you post it to pick out anything that doesn't necessarily flow so smoothly. For example, at the end of your second paragraph it says "The colors and the words are different because there a very intricate and looked like it took a lot of time each frame to make."
And about your question on citations, since there technically aren't any page numbers I wouldn't worry about citing them because we already know where you got your source. And for the Action Comic #1 I would just put a footnote with the website where you found your information. But I'm no expert on citations so I don't know if that would be the right thing to do or not.
When first reading the title “Jimmy Corrigan – The Smartest Kid on Earth”, my first intuition what the book would be about was adventure. I thought Jimmy Corrigan was a young boy living at home with smart powers. Jimmy was, after the first couple pages, a middle age man with no life who talks to his mother all day. To my demise, it never got off that subject. Jimmy was not a super hero and was not the “normal” comic I thought it would be. Then, I decided to go online and find a comic book to compare and contrast “Jimmy Corrigan”. I picked Action Comic #1. This comic book has Superman in it, so I decided to use Superman. Superman was used in Jimmy Corrigan a lot as references to a father like figure and someone Jimmy Corrigan looked up to. The differences between both of the comics are physically and mentally evident.
The first obvious differences in the two comics are the physical appearance of the two characters. Also, the physical appearance of the words and the pictures themselves pose variations. Jimmy Corrigan looks way older in appearance than his real age. He has saggy eyelids, always frowning, and not in the greatest shape. Superman, on the other hand, looks younger than his age. He is in shape and is always smiling. I think that this symbolizes what each of them stands for. Superman’s purpose to me is just to help people. Jimmy is aged because he is trying to find himself, or helping himself instead of others. The physical appearance of the comic itself is different, too. Superman is more of a comic book in that it uses a lot of cuts and breaks. It uses a lot of explanations marks and question marks. I feel like it’s never really calm and it is jumpy with the prime colors blue, orange, red, and/or blue. It reads back and forth and it is pretty apparent its supposed to be read that way. “Jimmy Corrigan”, on the other hand, reads more like a book to me. It has specific events where it shows you the comic more like a film role on a movie. For example, the part where he has a nose bleed in the hospital from getting hit from a truck it shows him holding his nose for a couple pages. The colors and the words are different because there a very intricate and looked like it took a lot of time for each frame to make. I think the way that the physical appearances of each comic pose a different purpose also. I think Superman’s comic is like the way it is because there is really no back story or anything we need to know besides of the story itself. Jimmy, on the other hand, is intricate because we find out more than just a story, we find the inside story on his father and his grandfather. The story about Jimmy Corrigan is intricate just like the pages and the words are laid out.
The second difference is the story line and how the story line is portrayed. Superman is an obvious linear progression. The plot is usually “To be continued” like I read in this particular comic. Superman usually has a bad guy and a damsel in distress. “Jimmy Corrigan” is all over the place. There are flashbacks, dreams, and of course linear story plots. I think that the plot is all over the place because of the fact of all the different stories we need to know to find out Jimmy’s story itself. It uses certain events in history like the Chicago fair in the 19th century. Jimmy doesn’t really have a bad guy. He himself could be the bad guy in trying to find himself. Superman usually does not show Superman doing things like going the bathroom or eating. Superman is more than just a man. Corrigan, however, is shown on the toilet, sleeping, on the phone with his mother. I think we can relate to Corrigan because he is kind of more like us in a way.
I think that Corrigan and Superman are two separate people and two separate genres of comic books. Corrigan is more personal, and Superman is more like a hero to us. Maybe that is why Superman is Corrigan’s father like figure in the comic book.
(1. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/yeung/actioncomics/page1.html )
Charity's issue is spot on here. Your points of comparison are accurate, as far as they go, but why make them? How do we understand JC better/differently by holding it up in contrast to AC #1? It's a plausible comparison, since the idea of Superman is so important in the book, but you never step us through your reasoning or your strategy...
Post a Comment