Word: ware
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Chris Ware lives in the past is like saying the Queen of England lives in a house. Ware turns the past into a palace. In 2000's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Ware ransacks the history of cartooning, borrowing from 19th century lithography, superhero comics and Sunday funnies to create a visual language in which panels twist across the page like a drunken conga line...
...1990s in which Corrigan's style and themes were formed. The alienated title rodent shares DNA with Disney's Mickey, among others, but with surreal differences (in some strips, for instance, he has two heads, one of which sickens and dies). Recapturing the past is a theme here too: Ware writes a touching introduction about the death of his grandmother, details from which--his returning to visit her former home, for example--surface in the strips. Ware's eerie, nostalgic world is no Disneyland, but it's a magic kingdom nonetheless. --By James Poniewozik
...self-portrait from Chris Ware's sketchbook...
...into the author's personal sensibilities. Sex, self-loathing, loneliness and a sentimental yearning for the past the past fills the pages, often in full color. Preliminary layouts for later polished pieces show up, as do near-perfectly formed strips that have never been seen before. Any artist or Ware aficionado will find it extremely interesting, though the uninitiated may be somewhat baffled by it. Frankly, this criticism extends to Ware's finished work as well, including "Quimby the Mouse." It takes a very high comix-reading level to appreciate Ware's more ambitious layouts...
...Both "Quimby the Mouse" and "The Acme Novelty Date Book" are Chris Ware's search for answers to life's questions, and through his work it becomes our search as well. Though Chris Ware tries to dismiss "Quimby the Mouse" as juvenilia, we should all be so juvenile. Intensely thoughtful, funny, complex and beautiful, both the "Date Book," and "Quimby" do the right thing by asking questions but giving no answers...