Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

I don't think Chris Ware is going for the bright vibrant look.
If you read the comics the drawings go well with them.

They're pretty sick comics, I definitely feel the repression/depression, the art is just reflecting it.

He did Quimby Mouse ya?

You gotta give Ware his props, I mean when were these comics made?
There probably wasn't alot/anything like it at the time.


I'm into it.

chris ware is a really great cartoonist. his work is original and the visuals in his books (esp. in jimmy corrigan) are fantastic.
jimmy corrigan is realistic in its awkwardness and i must say that i agree with peach, the emotion comes from the silence.

Bonnie and Bill touched on a great point.
As far as I'm concerned, Ware has brought a new sense of a 'love of the craft' to the medium. B&B mentioned great design. His use of typography and his sensibilities regarding the crafting of the page. Is there another doing such minutiae detail to a dustjacket as seen with jimmy corrigan?
The rest of you (including Bill) lost me in their castration of Ware not being able to write. They're comics. Is it truly writing, per se?

Man, I'm sorry but ware can NOT write.
Jimmy Corrigan was almost unbearable to read. Great illustrations and great design, but poorly written.

The entire book can be summed up as a bunch of people looking awkardly at each other then coughing then going "oh" "um" "okay"

patricia, to love CRaig Thompson to not 'get' Chris Ware should be a crime. One is the comic equivalent of juvenile fiction, while the other can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any of today's lit All-Stars (Franzen, Safran-Foers, Zadie Smith). It's really that simple.

The Corrigan book exemplifies the beautiful marriage between imagery and well-written prose. The whole book is brilliantly designed (But depressing as hell.) I enjoyed it, even if it made me miserable. Corrigan is the only thing I have seen/read of Ware. Makes me want to try more. (Though not when I am feeling too happy.)

'Haters' is a bit harsh jordon.

But I will agree that ultimately it's a personal preference. He just doesn't reach me, on any wavelength. On the other hand, I can really connect to Spiegelman, Craig Thompson and Posy Simmonds. I guess I just prefer a more vibrant energetic line as well as what I consider to be more sincere, direct emotion.

i agree with peach. ware draws the life of quiet desperation better than anyone out there. i think it's just a matter of personal preference, becuase where the haters see something cold and anticeptic, that very same style makes me feel. no lie.

I don't know, I think Chris Ware's artistic genius is that lifelessness and silence are the areas where his expressiveness comes into play. His characters, especially in Jimmy Corrigan, have a sense of self-repressiveness about them, a quiet ugliness--that's the why of the colors, the why of the lifelessness and the coldness.

And when you see the horse dream in Jimmy Corrigan, or Jimmy's flights of fancy, or a few of the truly beautiful scenes, you see how tightly leashed these joys are but how much they say in all that they can't express. Chris Ware's art isn't intended to be vibrant, but it speaks with its silence.

I think that Ware is a genius simply based on his "Jimmy Corrigan" book. Also, have you ever seen the sketchbook of his that was released...not cold at all.
-J

Wow. Good to hear I'm not alone..THANK YOU Patricia! I will have to check out this Posy Simmons, then. I do argee that Mr. Ware is techincally an excellent artist - I certainly don't knock his talent, but it just seems so subtle and uninspired that I would rather read a textbook about tax codes.GO GIRL!
Matt

YES!!! I am vindicated!! Someone else feels the same way I do!!

Matt, I TOTALLY agree with you. I just don't get what is so amazing about Chris Ware's work. Yes, from a technical standpoint it is amazing, and he is obviosly talented, and works very hard, but I find his work cold, lifeless, flat. I have tried many times, but I just can't get into his stuff. And I won't stop trying yet, cuz I'm gonna go see him talk at the International Festival of Authors.

Now if you wanna read a graphic novel based on a classic, read the unbelievabley talented works of Posy Simmonds! Pick up 'Gemma Bovary' or read her online serial 'Tamara Drewe' which is based on 'Far From The Madding Crowd' and will be out in bookformat next year.

Posy Simmons' work is rich and luscious and full of life and energy and emotion and then some. I simply do not understand why she is not more appreciated here in North America.

End of rant.

I couldn't disagree more, Matt. I can't get enough of him!

His range is incredible. And his design sense is excellent. I love the deisgn of his work almost as much as the comics themselves.

Is it just me or is his stuff raved about too much? It feels so bland, lifeless, and I have no desire to read his comics because of the way it looks..but he seems to be the darling of the media, has his own NY Times feature every sunday, etc. Maybe I am way out of touch, but his style does nothing for me...