{"id":5970,"date":"2017-09-28T16:11:17","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T22:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/?p=5970"},"modified":"2017-09-28T16:17:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T22:17:41","slug":"get-em-while-theyre-fresh-new-books-for-september-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/2017\/09\/28\/get-em-while-theyre-fresh-new-books-for-september-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Get ‘Em While They’re Fresh: New Books for September 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I first enjoyed Chris Ware\u2019s comics in weekly installments, starting in 1992 in the free Chicago newspaper NewCity<\/em>.\u00a0 Many of those early comics centered on the character Jimmy Corrigan, an awkward boy who longs for the father who abandoned him, and a superhero resembling a seedy version of Superman. \u00a0What few of Ware\u2019s NewCity<\/em> readers might have guessed is the painfully autobiographical nature of his work. \u00a0As a child, Ware day-dreamed about escaping his shy persona with the discovery of latent superpowers, and only met his birth father years after he reached adulthood.<\/p>\n

Chris Ware: Conversations<\/em><\/a>, edited by Jean Braithwaite, reveals the inspiration and artistic process of the artist through a span of twenty-two years. \u00a0Many of the earlier interviews were originally published in obscure \u2018zines, such as first selection from Chum Magazine <\/em>(October 1994).\u00a0 One constant through all the years is Ware\u2019s almost compulsive self-deprecation:<\/p>\n

DK: Finally, what is heaven for Chris Ware?CW: I guess\u2026if I could ever really learn how to draw really well\u2026That sounds really stupid and self-indulgent. That\u2019s dumb. Don\u2019t even write that down.\u201d (Conversations, p. 14)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ware\u2019s work in NewCity<\/em> was eventually re-published in Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth<\/em><\/a> (Pantheon, 2000).\u00a0 Several full page panels from it and later books are included in this volume, although Conversations <\/em>is smaller than most of the originals; others are reproduced in black and white instead of color. \u00a0The real riches of the book are insight into Ware\u2019s inspiration and process.\u00a0 One doubts that many other comic artists would cite Flaubert or Nabokov when discussing writing techniques (Conversations, p. 29).\u00a0 Ware\u2019s meticulous care to create believable, three-dimensional worlds is also worth note:\u00a0 At one point, he describes constructing a balsa wood model of one of the settings in Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth<\/em>. \u00a0\u201cI realized that at certain times I was orienting them incorrectly and that the sun was rising on the wrong side of the earth and casting shadows incorrectly\u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 (Conversations, p. 133)<\/p>\n

In his recent work\u00a0Building Stories<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>(Pantheon, 2012),\u00a0 Ware draws a series of panels depicting the main character (we never know her name) describing a dream. She\u2019s in a bookstore and encounters a volume that seems to grow and morph as she pulls it off the shelf. \u201cSomeone had published my book! \u2026It had everything in it \u2013 my diaries, the stories from my writing classes, even stuff I didn\u2019t know I\u2019d written\u2026All of the illustrations\u2026were so precise and clean. It was like an architect had drawn them\u2026\u201d\u00a0 The nameless protagonist was describing Building Stories<\/em>.\u00a0 (reproduced in Conversations, XII)\u00a0 As Flaubert said, “Madame\u00a0Bovary,\u00a0c’est moi.”\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>Available in the John T. Richardson Library at call number 741.5973 W267C 2017.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I must confess that I did not read all of We Told You So: Comics as Art<\/em><\/a> (Fantagraphics, 2016).\u00a0 Subtitled \u201cAn oral history of Fantagraphics books,\u201d it is an astonishing 696 pages long and heavy enough to use for bicep curls.\u00a0 Founded in 1976 by college students Gary Groth and Mike Catron (later joined by Kim Thompson), Fantagraphics grew to become the premier publisher of alternative comics in the United States.\u00a0\u00a0 Fantagraphics championed cartoonists like R. Crumb, Dan Clowes and (of course) Chris Ware. Along the way, they also survived several financial meltdowns, multiple lawsuits and more than one relocation to a different state.\u00a0 Many of the book\u2019s anecdotes seem to revolve around publisher Gary Groth\u2019s legendarily difficult personality.\u00a0\u00a0 One loses count of how many editorial staff quit after clashing with him.\u00a0 Still, many artists show deep gratitude to Groth and Fantagraphics, since few others took alternative comics as seriously. \u00a0Packed with interviews and artwork, even a reader who knows nothing about alternative comics will find something to entertain, like this typical \u201cGary story”:<\/p>\n

Tom Spurgeon: I remember once Gary got a call from a check-cashing place in Vegas. I guess Bill Willingham was trying to cash a Fantagraphics check and they asked Gary to describe Willingham and he goes, \u201cYeah, he\u2019s about 6\u2019 7\u201d black guy, shaved head. Early 20s.\u201d Which is not what Bill Willingham looks like. (p. 391)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Available in the John T. Richardson Library at call number\u00a0741.5973 W3617S 2016<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first enjoyed Chris Ware\u2019s comics in weekly installments, starting in 1992 in the free Chicago newspaper NewCity.\u00a0 Many of those early comics centered on the character Jimmy Corrigan, an awkward boy who longs for the father who abandoned him, and a superhero resembling a seedy version of Superman. \u00a0What few of Ware\u2019s NewCity readers <\/p>\n

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