Chris Ware

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Image:Chris Ware Jimmy Corrigan cover.jpg Franklin Christenson Ware (born December 28, 1967) is an American comic book artist and cartoonist, best-known for a series of comics called the Acme Novelty Library, and a graphic novel, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he currently resides in Oak Park, Illinois.

Ware's art is eclectic in its influences, and largely reflects his love of early-20th century American aesthetics in both cartooning and graphic design. He makes transitions from one artistic style to another with little conspicuous effort. While some critics have accused Ware's work of being cold, and overly concerned with technique, the majority are impressed with his command of the medium and seemingly limitless willingness to experiment.

His work shows tangible influence from early cartoonists, like Winsor McCay and Frank King (creator of Gasoline Alley); especially in its layout and flow. Outside the comics genre, Ware has found inspiration and a kindred soul in Joseph Cornell, both men sharing a need to capture items of nostalgia, grace, and beauty within "boxes." He has been called "the Emily Dickinson of comics." [1]

1 Career
2 Recurring characters and stories
3 Non-comics work
4 External links
- 4.1 Resources
- 4.2 Press

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Career

Ware's earliest published strips appeared in the late 1980s on the comics page of The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to numerous daily strips under different titles, Ware also had a weekly satirical science fiction serial in the paper titled Floyd Farland: Citizen of the Future. This was eventually published in 1988 as a prestige-format comic book from Eclipse Publishing, and its publication even led to a brief correspondence between Ware and Timothy Leary. Now embarrassed by the book, which he considers amateurish and naive, Ware is reportedly purchasing and destroying all remaining copies.

While still a sophomore at UT, Ware attracted the attention of famed Manhattan cartoonist, publisher and designer Art Spiegelman, who invited Ware to contribute to his influential anthology magazine, RAW. This led to greater acclaim, and Ware's eventual relationship with Fantagraphics Books. His Fantagraphics series Acme Novelty Library defied comics publishing conventions with every issue. The series featured a combination of new material as well as reprints of work Ware had done for the Texan (such as Quimby the Mouse) and the Chicago weekly paper New City. Ware's work appeared originally in New City before he moved on to his current "home", the Chicago Reader. Beginning with the 16th issue of the Acme Novelty Library, Ware is self-publishing his work, while maintaining a relationship with Fantagraphics for distribution and storage. This is an interesting return to Ware's early career, when he self-published such books as Lonely Comics and Stories as well as miniature digests of stories based on Quimby the Mouse and an unnamed potato-like creature.

In recent years he has also been involved in editing (and designing) several books and book series, including the new reprint series of Gasoline Alley from Drawn and Quarterly Walt and Skeezix, the on-going reprint of Krazy Kat by Fantagraphics, and the thirteenth volume of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, which is devoted to comics.

Over the years his work garnered several awards, including the 1999 National Cartoonists Society Award for Best Comic Book for Acme Novelty Library.

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Recurring characters and stories

Quimby the Mouse was an early character for Ware and a breakthrough where his current approach to comics is concerned. Rendered in the style of an early animation character like Felix the Cat, Quimby the Mouse is perhaps Ware's most autobiographical character. Quimby's relationship with a cat head named Sparky is by turns conflict-ridden and loving, and thus intended to reflect all human relationships. While Quimby retains mobility, Sparky remains immobile and helpless, subject to all the indignities Quimby visits upon him. Quimby also acts as a narrator for Ware's reminiscences of his youth, in particular his relationship with his grandmother. Quimby was presented in a series of smaller panels than most comics, almost providing the illusion of motion ala a zoetrope. In fact, Ware once designed a zoetrope to be cut out and constructed by the reader in order to watch a Quimby "silent movie". Ware's ingenuity is neatly shown in this willingness to break from the confines of the page.

Later issues of Acme Novelty Library serialized Ware's novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. This was later published in book form to enormous acclaim from not only the comics press but the mainstream as well. The book won The Guardian First Book Award for 2001, the first time a graphic novel has won a major United Kingdom book award, as well as the prize for best album of the 2003 Angoulème comic book festival in France. Ware is also the first comics artist ever to be invited to exhibit in the prestigious Whitney Museum biennial exhibition, in 2002. Ware also exhibited in Europe.

Ware is currently at work on Rusty Brown, a series ostensibly about an action figure collecting manchild and his somewhat troubled childhood, but which, in Ware's typical fashion, diverges into multiple storylines about Brown's father's early life in the 1950s as a science fiction writer and his best friend Chalky White's adult home life.

Ware recently finished a shorter story, called "Building Stories." The Sunday New York Times Magazine has started serializing the piece with the September 18th, 2005 issue.

Another recurring Ware character is the Super-man (not to be confused with Superman). In interviews, Ware has expressed the thought that were Superman real, he would probably indulge his every desire, growing fat and selfishly taking advantage of the world around him. Ware's Super-man resembles the way Ware drew God during the early part of his career, even wearing the same caped costume and domino mask and possessing the same slightly sadistic personality; it is unclear whether God can be distinguished from the Super-man in Ware's work. The Super-man also turns up in Jimmy Corrigan as an ambiguous and somewhat abusive mentor.

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Non-comics work

Ware is an ardent collector of ragtime paraphernalia and publishes an annual journal devoted to the music titled The Ragtime Ephemeralist. He also plays the banjo and piano. The tremendous influence of the music and its era can be seen in Ware's work, especially in regard to logos and layout. Ware has designed album covers and posters for such ragtime performers as the Et Cetera String Band, Virginia Tichenor, Reginald R. Robinson, the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, and Guido Nielsen. He has also designed covers and posters for non-ragtime performers such as Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire and 5ive Style. Ware also designed the façade of the San Francisco writing lab and pirate store 826 Valencia.

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