Chris Ware - C or D?

Classic, no doubt about it. It's good to see reviews of comics in the mainstream press, but they still miss a lot of what is great in JC that is comics - it's often reviewed as if it's a novel with some clever artistic additions, which misses the point.

now watch someone else come along and say 'he stole my girl and ate my dog, he's a bastart, I'll glass him next chance'

of course he's technically impeccable and his commitment to pushing the boundaries of the medium are admirable, but a few of his innovations likewise verge on schtick at this point (cf. the "family history breakdown diagrams" in j.c.)

martin, the paperback of jimmy corrigan has a(n ironic? WHO CARES) one-page strip on the back about the sad unfortunate fate of a copy of the hardback of said book, which is filed with the proper books, but then an uncaring shop assistant moves it next to something supposedly EMBLEMATIC of the poor fate he gets trying to be MEANINGFUL in comic books; actually i may be conflating it with this interview:

"But I didn't realize that all the junk that companies like DC and Marvel have been selling under the rubric of "graphic novels" has created a new shelf in bookstores, and that's where our stuff ends up: torn and soiled, next to Batman: Firestorm At Midnight. Recently, I was in Barnes & Noble here in Chicago, and found a copy of my book in the role-playing-games section. I had to choke back a sob. It's a reminder of how little respect this sort of endeavor garners."

The three indie rock bands you'll eventually hear will thrill you as much as the three indie comics you've bothered with.

what are the kids buying now? do they read at all?

As for rockist/popist, I'm not sure if I really think that, say, Grant Morrison's run on the JLA was better than Jimmy Corrigan, but I'd be willing to give the argument a try, because I'm not sure I don't believe it either. I suspect that The Ultimates, for instance, might be better than almost anything put out by Vertigo (bar stuff by Morrison, probably). And historically, I'm not sure how much 'indie' stuff there is in the history of US comic books to rank with Kirby's superheroes for Marvel and DC, or Barks' duck material, let alone ranking above it. Kurtzman and Crumb are the ones I'd probably rank as highly, and only the latter is far from the mainstream.

So who is the Andrew WK of comix, then?
Evan Dorkin?

If by "nice," you mean extremely shy and therefore polite by default. I met him after a Chicago Humanities Festival lecture a couple years ago: I was pleased that when he left, he did the anemic indie-boy goodbye wave, hand close to chest, like Dick in High Fidelity. A couple days later at the Festival, he was on a panel of comix creators (Spiegelman, Eisner, Katchor, Gaiman, McCloud) and answered questions by first putting his head down on the table and shielding his eyes with his hands before whispering into the microphone. Of course, after a while, you begin to wonder if it's a shtick.

I would argue that there are certain titles put out by Marvel and DC which are quality. I don't really go for indie comics after wasting a good chunk of change on one of the newer versions of "Strangers In Paradise" and not feeling any type of investment or interest in the characters, their issues or their lives.

the middlebrow indie comic is the bane of my existence.

Explain why this comic is worse than ElfQuest.

classic, motherfuckers.

Surprised I didn't say more on this thread earlier, though I know I've praised Ware elsewhere on here in the past. Oddly enough I find myself thinking along the lines of Jess more now, though I'm still deeply impressed by his talents and by Jimmy Corrigan as a whole. I think, however, there's a willful disregard/disdain for the 'modern day' which ultimately grates on me. That Ware was able to capture a Chicago now beyond living memory in the World's Fair section was wonderful -- it made reading The Devil in the White City much more lively. But so much of his approach seems to rely on an ill-disguised (and often not disguised at all) feeling that anything made after 1940 is questionable -- I think it makes his older characters much more interesting than his younger ones, because he has a greater affinity for them, but playing the 'I am out of sync with my time' card becomes a crutch. God knows what he would do if you ever confronted him with an iPod filled with music created solely in the last five years.

I wish he did some other things too. Like a space adventure comic or something.

Well, there was Rocket Sam...sorta.

You wanna borrow my copy of Floyd Farland, Citizen of the Future? It's super rare! He had most of the run pulped.

Anyway, yeah, I can dig that. I hope that he isn't simply making all his stuff about people dissappointed in their lives because he thinks that's what will get him critical acclaim as serious literature. And let's face it, it's worked so far, so it's understandable that he's felt reinforcement to continue in that direction.

But from reading his work for decades now, and from the Rayburn book, and so forth, I think that he's actually more interested in being a formal innovator than anything else. Content may be a secondary consideration to form for him.

...and then there was ILC.

Anyone see that Chris Ware mural or facade or whatever above that gallery in the Mission? If it's not his then it's obviously in tribute, with Quimby-type mouses and empty word balloons all over the thing.

Rusty Brown and Chalky White just stunning stuff, heavy at times but had to keep reading to see where it would all end up.

how did you get back here to post, shouldn't you still be reading until 2015 or something?

I never, ever get the point of this guy ever.

xp you mean above the pirate store? pretty sure that's him, since that store is mcsweeney's headquarters or something

Oh Jesus Christ it figures.

how did you get back here to post, shouldn't you still be reading until 2015 or something?

noo not the whole series, just the series in the book i have (not sure of the number, it's the one that ends with Chalky White vs Brittany year sum up)

http://i40.tinypic.com/20kor5u.jpg

:-/

lyfe, man

everybody kill themselves now!

Our kids play together in the park a lot. Nice guy!

Read ANL no. 20 aka Lint the other day and he'd be classic all over again just for that. (My impressions above still hold for a certain strain of his work and most everything he's been doing lately I've barely kept in touch with so i likely have missed a bigger shift but Lint as a self-contained standalone is amazing stuff, actually living in the past, present and future in a way that works more for me than he'd used to.)

The previous issue was a similarly stand-alone chapter in the giant Rusty novel, and also serves as another answer to

I wish he did some other things too. Like a space adventure comic or something.
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 27 November 2005 11:15 (5 years ago)

http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/imagesProduct/a4816331de4fe7.jpg

20 is amazing. It's a "raise the bar" moment for American comics - keep up folks! 19, with the intertwining of pulpy sci-fi and a sad humdrum existence, is highly recommended as well.

For someone whose work I'd previously thought of as top-down experiences - tremendous for a mental workout, but not immediately engaging - those two books are arguably the some of the most viscerally engaging lose-track-of-time works of art I've encountered over the past few years.

I forget the review I scrounged up which noted that if this were something by Lethem -- or more to the point, written in Lethem's text-only medium -- it might garner wider attention beyond the Ware niche. My thoughts on that aren't to agree or disagree, but to think that Lint really proves the point that Ware can tell a story about the 'real' world in a way that I admit I would not have read or even thought about reading if it were simply word-only fiction (or, for that matter, a movie in that vein). It's not a sign of the supposed maturity of the form, more that Ware's use of the form itself succeeds where others will not or cannot, at least for me and I'd guess for others as well -- a straightforward story of Lint in verbal fiction could well be a compelling read, but if you sold it to me with "It's a book about this schmuck of a well-off straight white guy over his entire life and his struggles and self-delusions and all that" I would not care to explore it at all. Ware makes me care, that's a gift.

Related to which, the use of lacunae throughout is masterful.

I hate not having a decent comic book store in my town anymore. I would always buy these when I saw them but for some reason I never get it together to mailorder them from a town only a 5-hour drive away.

better distributed to bookstores these days tbh.

Cool endpaper diagram from Ware’s “Building Stories” (ACME Novelty Library No. 16)
http://hoodedutilitarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Building-Stories.jpg
right click - view image - zoom in

All his Building Stories comics will be distributed as “many little books in a beautiful box” early October 2012.

I haven't read all the Building Stories installments that were published in New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Acme Novelty Library, etc., but I hesitate to think there will be any new material in this box set. Nor do I think he'll ever release a graphic novel with all new material ever again. Just stuff like ACME and compilations.

I'll probably like this box set as if it isn't all old stuff, but whatever.

that is fucking gorgeous and oh will i buy that for sure

i stand by some of my cranky criticisms in 2003, but after acme nos. 19 and 20, and the most recent batch of building stories strips, i really feel like i am living through the flowering of one of the greatest living artists.

I hesitate to think there will be any new material in this box set.

I don't.

Nor do I think he'll ever release a graphic novel with all new material ever again.

He never has.

correct me if I'm wrong but the jimmy corrigan strips were mostly all different than the stuff in the book...

ok i hate stuff now but i really really want that box.

I guess I'm probably wrong. I picked up the giant Quimby the Mouse book after I read Jimmy Corrigan because I wanted to test out other Ware. The Quimby the Mouse book put me off ever trying to read anything else because I didn't like having scattered mini installments all in one book

apparently this is really dope btw. i've only read stray syndications of a couple of them.

With the increasing electronic incorporeality of existence, sometimes it’s reassuring—perhaps even necessary—to have something to hold on to. Thus within this colorful keepsake box the purchaser will find a fully-apportioned variety of reading material ready to address virtually any imaginable artistic or poetic taste, from the corrosive sarcasm of youth to the sickening earnestness of maturity—while discovering a protagonist wondering if she’ll ever move from the rented close quarters of lonely young adulthood to the mortgaged expanse of love and marriage. Whether you’re feeling alone by yourself or alone with someone else, this book is sure to sympathize with the crushing sense of life wasted, opportunities missed and creative dreams dashed which afflict the middle- and upper-class literary public (and which can return to them in somewhat damaged form during REM sleep).

First ever coffee table book that's about the size and weight of a coffee table.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/120507_2012_p465.jpg

Chris told me that's me in the upper right. My mother in law framed it for me for father's day!

i got it in the mail the other day (along with the new installment of Charles Burns' Jonny 23 series) but I haven't had a chance to look at much of it yet. However, this is what it looks like. holy shit:

http://i47.tinypic.com/25utbwo.jpg

stoked, just purchased.

>Chris told me that's me in the upper right. My mother in law framed it for me for father's day!

Josh, that's *great*, a lovely thing to be part of :)

I'm hoping to get the box set for my birthday this week, it looks fantastic laid out like that.

yes that's amazing josh!

you're the one with the baby harness/papoose thing?

looking forward v much to this - ware has been doing a lot of press for this, but wondering if anyone has asked him abt The Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson yet

yeah holy shit josh!, that's so lovely. what a lovely way to carry on existing somewhere.

will try to get hold of this somehow, i can't buy it yet but i want it bad. i'm super psyched for the new charles burns, too.

First ever coffee table book that's about the size and weight of a coffee table.

wait, what is?

check z s' pic!

I've held the box though, and it's not even the size of a D&Q Moomin collection

holy fucking shit does that look awesome. this guy really gives you value for your dollar.

(xpost, brain kept firing)

it's not even close to the Quimby or Book Of Jokes collections!

let alone Ninja or So Many Splendid Sundays [or any of Maresca's other books] or George Sprott or Wally Wood's EC Stories [or any of the other IDW Artists Editions] or Wednesday Comics or (to cite something from the new Ware) Kramer's 7 or Paris Soirees or Les Yeux Du Chat.

(or even the Stray Bullets hardcovers or Picturebox's Panter monograph or Fanta's Gahan Wilson Playboy collection, or their Dedini collection for that matter. and that's just comics, not actual coffee table books - half the Taschen line and those LaChappelle semi-boxed volumes are immdiately twice the size of Building Stories....)

http://cdn.publishme.se/cdn/5-2/32622/images/2010/coffee_tables_15_68179312.jpg

http://www.chrisrand.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/smith-and-jones-coffee-table-book.jpg

^ back cover was printed with fitted screw-holes in the corners

xpost Yeah, that's me with the Baby Bjorn. The weird thing is, so many of the subtle details are exactly right, down to the age span between my two daughters, one's blue crocs and blonde hair, etc., ... but exactly right three or four years ago. I wonder if he took a picture? Sketched it up and held onto it until he had a use for it? Very mysterious, the way the guy works. That's genius for you.

I found his knowledge and recall of old school New Yorker covers remarkable:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/04/mothers-day-the-women-cover-artists-of-the-new-yorker.html#slide_ss_0=1

this is fking huge! i'm torn between "can't wait to start" and "where the hell do i start?" and, as a result it has sat in it's massive box untouched. I have to say though that this is a beautiful object and a bargain at amazon prices.

Joe McCullogh posted a suggested reading order if you really want one

yes please. although i may disregard it.

http://joglikescomics.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/building-stories-suggested-reading-order.html

thanks, sic.

haha, never knew about this:

Fortune 500 cover

In 2010, Ware designed the cover for Fortune magazine's "Fortune 500" issue, but it was rejected.[21] Ware had mentioned the work at a panel at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo on April 16, as first noted in an April 20 blog post by Matthew J. Brady.[22] The cover, featuring the circle-shaped humans common in Ware's more broadly socially satirical comic-strips, turned the numbers 500 into skyscrapers looming over the continental United States. On the roofs, corporate bosses drink, dance, and sun themselves as a helicopter drops a shovelful of money down for them. Below, among signs reading "Credit Default Swap Flea Market," "Greenspan Lube Pro," and "401K Cemetery," a helicopter scoops money out of the US Treasury with a shovel, cars pile up in Detroit, and flag-waving citizens party around a boiling tea kettle in the shape of an elephant. In the Gulf of Mexico, homes are sinking, while hooded prisoners sit in Guantanamo, a "Factory of Exploitation" keeps going in Mexico, China is tossing American dollars into the Pacific, and the roof of bankrupted Greece's Treasury has blown off. A spokesperson for the magazine only said that, as is their practice, they had commissioned a number of possible covers from different artists, including Ware.[23] Brady wrote in his blog that Ware said at the panel he "accepted the job because it would be like doing the [cover for the] 1929 issue of the magazine".[22]

He recently wrote a neat piece on the Laura Ingalls Wilder books... I think it was on The Millions site?