A real masterpiece! 4

To believe the subtitle of the original version, it is simply the smartest kid land ("The smartest kid on earth")

If the first pages of the album actually narrate the (mis) adventures of little Jimmy, the story quickly propels our young American into adulthood without transition or rudely. Incidentally, the reader will not have time to detect signs of exceptional intelligence promised. No more than any other toddler anyway.

Would there be a double misrepresentation of the product?

Quite the contrary. Perhaps a bit of irony, and again ... As we follow the path of Jimmy, one begins to doubt the faster will of the author to make us laugh of his character. It is even quite the opposite that ultimately occur. Jimmy is not exceptional and that is in part what makes it endearing.

Besides, nothing is done to tell us what to think, as the thumbnails are often short on dialogue and, conversely, rich in visual detail that we can explore at leisure for hours.

What about the story? It is almost banal. Jimmy Corrigan quietly approaching forty. He lives alone carries a boring job in Chicago and its main social bond comes down to his possessive mother. Until the day his father contacts the after thirty years of absence ... The nice "loser" will have to do violence to try to know his father.

Without revealing result of events of our anti-hero, Jimmy goes to see green and not ripe ...

Who is Jimmy Corrigan then? Going back to our original question, it is what we just described while being almost double the fictional author. Chris Ware has actually knew his father very late. Their meeting also passed following a call he expected more.

One would be tempted to think that Chris Ware needed to digest the painful experience and turn it into fiction to live better. To produce something beautiful and definitive when life has a nasty tendency to write to blows mediocre episodes without providing any satisfactory conclusions.

"Jimmy Corrigan" may seem inaccessible at first glance, be it as (an extremely refined style) and substance (loneliness, abandonment, dysfunctional family ...), but this work of great sensitivity deserves that one looks at it.

A work of art as an antidote to "the Misfortunates" ...

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