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A review by stopnodont
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
2.0
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I personally found almost nothing redeeming about this book.
I can handle (and even enjoy) depressing stories, and I don't mind a slow story with a good payoff, but this book is straight up boring. The transitions between reality and Jimmy's dreams/daydreams are very poorly demarcated, which sometimes works well in literature, but I felt it did not work in this instance. Luckily there are occasional "recaps" that explain what has happened thus far (I believe originally this was serialized), and those were pretty much the only thing that kept me going for a large portion of the book.
One thing I will commend is the "design" of the book, which is separate (in my eyes, at least) from the actual art itself. The titles and page layouts are sometimes quite beautiful, with an almost art deco feel to them. The panel art is nothing special - on par with newspaper comics.
Important note: I did not quite finish the book. I abandoned it roughly 3/4 of the way through. There is a chance that there is some monumental payoff at the end, and maybe that's what has garnered this book all of the positive reviews it has, but I can't fathom an ending so good that it outweighs the absolute slog that precedes it.
I can handle (and even enjoy) depressing stories, and I don't mind a slow story with a good payoff, but this book is straight up boring. The transitions between reality and Jimmy's dreams/daydreams are very poorly demarcated, which sometimes works well in literature, but I felt it did not work in this instance. Luckily there are occasional "recaps" that explain what has happened thus far (I believe originally this was serialized), and those were pretty much the only thing that kept me going for a large portion of the book.
One thing I will commend is the "design" of the book, which is separate (in my eyes, at least) from the actual art itself. The titles and page layouts are sometimes quite beautiful, with an almost art deco feel to them. The panel art is nothing special - on par with newspaper comics.
Important note: I did not quite finish the book. I abandoned it roughly 3/4 of the way through. There is a chance that there is some monumental payoff at the end, and maybe that's what has garnered this book all of the positive reviews it has, but I can't fathom an ending so good that it outweighs the absolute slog that precedes it.