Jimmy Corrigan - The Smartest Boy in the World

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Jimmy Corrigan - The Smartest Boy in the World (Original Title: Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth ) is an award-winning comic by Chris Ware . The framework of the story describes the meeting of the adult Jimmy Corrigan with his father; Despite the title, it's not about the celebration of a child prodigy: in flashbacks, Corrigan's dark, lonely life is shed light on. From 1995 to 2000 Ware published portions of the comic in the New City newspaper , Chicago, and in his own comic book series, Acme Novelty Library . In 2000 the entire story was published in book form by Pantheon Books, and in 2013 Jimmy Corrigan was published in German by Reprodukt .

Form and action

Jimmy Corrigan - The Smartest Boy in the World is a complex comic book story about Jimmy Corrigan and his father. In parallel, tells the story of Jimmy Corrigan's grandfather, who is abandoned by his father. Chris Ware tells, among other things, with flashbacks, dream sequences and metaphors and uses graphic stylistic devices such as infographics or handicraft sheets. Jimmy Corrigan is a Chicago office worker in his mid-thirties who leads a lonely and monotonous life. The only social contact seems to be with his mother, who calls him daily. His father, whom he never met, contacts him with a letter. Corrigan accepts his father's invitation to Thanksgiving and they spend a few days together, but they remain strangers. Corrigan gets to know a side of his family that is unknown to him, he meets his grandfather and his father's adopted daughter. In the end, however, Corrigan's father dies in a car accident and Corrigan travels back to Chicago. The parallel story describes how Corrigan's grandfather, James Corrigan, moved to Chicago with his father as a child. The mother died early, so that the boy only has the father as a caregiver. In the end, James' father also leaves the boy. The theme of the comic book Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Boy in the World is father-son relationships that fail. The ideal image of family and coexistence that Corrigan dreams of in his fantasy remains unattainable for Corrigan in reality for the time being.

Prizes and awards

Ware received the Guardian First Book Award in 2001 for Jimmy Corrigan - The Smartest Boy in the World ; this was the first time a comic book story won one of the major book awards in Great Britain . In 2003, Ware won the Prix ​​du meilleur album with Jimmy Corrigan at the Angoulême International Comics Festival .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Prize winners 1999-2009

Web links