First Images in Jimmy Corrigan

Jimmy Corrigan is an extremely detailed, frame-by-frame account of the life of Jimmy Corrigan.  As a source of a story, Jimmy Corrigan most closely resembles a film because of its images. With this is mind, Jimmy Corrigan could even be thought of as a storyboard for a film. In a movie, the opening sequence usually establishes a tone for the following action throughout the entire film. In Jimmy Corrigan, the opening sequence of frames does exactly this. The opening sequence gives the reader an idea of how Ware portrays Jimmy, who Jimmy is, and it provides reasoning for Jimmy's behavior throughout the novel.
Taken as a whole, this sequence shows a pretty amusing series of events. A young boy gets yelled at for making his mother late and for simply acting like the child that he is. Anyone could easily laugh at the idea of Jimmy's overbearing mother or strange personality that drives him to put on superhero masks in front of the mirror in his underwear instead of getting dressed to go out. We sympathize with the young boy for being scolded, but also laugh at the situation. On a certain level, however, it is depressing that the child cannot enjoy himself without his mother's scrutinizing and controlling eyes watching him. Ware's comedic but depressing tone is present here as it is throughout the novel. He examines the life of Jimmy Corrigan, a completely average human being who lives a somewhat pathetic life.

The very first image we see of Jimmy is of his younger self in his underwear, in front of the mirror. From this image alone we can characterize Jimmy as a vulnerable and a bit eccentric. This image is extremely personal and portrays the idea that Jimmy is vulnerable because of its details. He is alone, standing in front of his mirror in his underwear, which is a private, vulnerable moment for any human being. The details that Jimmy is hunched over, not looking up, and does not have a full head of hair, all contribute to his uncanny resemblance to an infant. He is as close to fetal position as he can get, standing. The fact that Ware decided to use this as our first impression of Jimmy reveals how he wants us to think of and see Jimmy: harmless and perhaps a little pathetic. We find out in the next two images that Jimmy is creating a superhero-esque eye mask for himself, which establishes Jimmy further as geeky. Judging the image harshly, we could go as far to say that he would rather spend most of his time reading superhero comic books rather than speak to other human beings.
This sequence continues with images of Jimmy's mom yelling at him for various things he has done to upset her. When Jimmy's mom yells at him from downstairs, scolding him for prolonging their departure, the reader can identify with him because this is a completely normal situation. Every child has heard his mom's lecture about making her late to an event or an appointment. Jimmy's mom continues to scold him for the duration of the car ride to the classic car show. Jimmy sticks his hand out the window to enjoy the small pleasure of feeling the wind through his finger (probably imagining what it would be like to fly through the air as a superhero), which immediately prompts his mother to criticize his behavior. This takes Jimmy's mom's scolding to the next level as she is preventing him from enjoying his small, harmless pleasure. These images lay the grounds for the idea that Jimmy's mom is ridiculously overbearing and controlling, but they also provide explanation for why Jimmy is so passive in his life as an adult. These images, which are meant to summarize his childhood, depict Jimmy as a puppet for his mother's hands. We can safely assume that Jimmy was babied and treated like a child until much too far in his adolescence because he is still babied as a middle-aged man. This explains his underdeveloped social skills that he exhibits later in life with his co-workers Peggy and Jack.
Using this first sequence of images, we can deduce a lot of information about Jimmy Corrigan the man as well as Jimmy Corrigan the novel. Jimmy's overbearing mother and seemingly miserable childhood account for the social problems and boring life he lives as an adult.