Review by Choice Review
Chris Ware is an author/artist contributing to the development of the graphic novel genre. He combines the skills of cartoonist, graphic designer, calligrapher, and storyteller. His engaging historicist style is based in a variety of sources, from 1920s and 1930s graphic style to 1950s and 1960s popular culture and from fruit labels to 19th-century primers; the result is interesting and vaguely familiar. Profusely illustrated in color, this short, inexpensive book is the first to explore his work. Readers unfamiliar with Ware's work will learn about Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth, who serves as the means to explore an Irish American family's history since the Civil War. Corrigan and his acquaintances are literary--developed as individuals with moods, motives, and well-developed personalities. He is among the most articulate of authors in a genre he has helped to extend beyond the cartoon; the result is literature and graphic art. Book covers, posters, false advertisements, graphic novels, sculpture, and strips are discussed and illustrated. There is a useful bibliography. This is a worthwhile introduction to an important career. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. All levels. R. M. Labuz Mohawk Valley Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
More proof that artist Ware, best known for Jimmy Corrigan (2000), has escaped the comic-book ghetto comes in this entry in Yale's series on eminent graphic designers, Monographics. Raeburn celebrates Ware's versatility by reproducing some 70 examples of his strikingly innovative work: comics pages, of course, but also paintings, posters, sketchbook pages, kinetic sculptures, toys, and even a sign for a bookstore and a lunchbox. Impressively knowledgeable about the comics medium, Raeburn contributes an invaluable essay revealing the autobiographical elements in Ware's work and demonstrating the influences on it of old-time newspaper strips and turn-of-the-century graphic design. Raeburn also insightfully annotates the individual works, explaining Ware's visually complex, postmodern style and his experimentation with narrative and graphic forms. The only fault of Raeburn's commentary is that there isn't enough of it. And while Ware's work itself is brilliant, the book's relatively small pages don't do it justice (much of the comic-strip dialogue is nearly illegible).Still, as a concise introduction to an important artist, it is ideal, especially for comics nonenthusiasts. --Gordon Flagg Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This volume, the fourth in the Monographics series of design books, begins with a lengthy introduction exploring the history of comics as a language, before bringing Ware into the foreground. Nicely caught up on Ware?s vision of the medium, Raeburn, who self-publishes The Imp (a series of booklets about comics), treats readers to an insightful, chatty and precise explication of Ware?s life and work. This includes the standard biographical information, but also covers Ware?s working methods and source materials, the everyday life of a contemporary cartoonist, the ins and outs of comics publishing and, by way of Ware?s love of ragtime, a fine comparison between the rhythms of ragtime and the structure of comics. The remaining pages consist of examples of Ware?s work, encompassing graphics, comics, sketchbook work, paintings and even some wondrous sculptures. Ware?s work is aesthetically gorgeous, but it?s also thematically complex and layered enough to reward the kind of analytical skills Raeburn brings to the project. Raeburn?s concise and informative captions sometimes describe Ware?s thought processes, a particular source of inspiration or the work?s place in Ware?s oeuvre. Raeburn handles these captions, like the rest of the text, with dry wit and obvious affection for the artist. In just a handful of pages, Raeburn eloquently captures the essence of this important artist. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
