Jimmy Corrigan is a sweet lovable middle-aged man whose story is told in sixteen square panels per page about one inch long. The colours are muted with mostly pastel blues with some browns, grays and whites. Splash in some deep red for those enraged moments when Jimmy visits his dad. The story is tender and innocent. Either Jimmy never grew up emotionally or simply doesn’t live beyond the scope of his tiny, little life. Either way, there’s a profundity to the character that will capture your heart, assuming he doesn’t depress you.
Looking at Jimmy’s background, you can tell he had it hard. His mom seems overprotective, still treating him like a child. She’ll call to tell him to put on a sweater, for instance, and Jimmy responds with the impatience of a seven year old boy. His dad is a disaster. He’s mean, bold and abusive. Later on in life, Jimmy reunites with him, which is when the deep red colour breaks with the story’s colour code of muted, pastel colours.
We all know people like Jimmy in our lives. I think we pity them, but I don’t think we should. We assume they’re unhappy because they seem alone, but often, their lives are just different. But, at the same time, some people do live desperately lonely lives. They ache in private, all the time, I’m sure. I wish I had seen some of those darker moments in Jimmy Corrigan’s story. You know, the lonely moments where he hurts physically because of the isolation. I know they exist and I think that it would help build compassion for people who get left out in life.
That’s what I like about these stories the most. They help us turn pity into compassion for those who don’t fit in or simply can’t find their place in the adult world. We need to see their humanity too, because it’s good for our soul. It also helps us cultivate an appreciation for diversity and individuality in our communities. Chris Ware does an exemplary job at creating a character worthy of compassion and respect.
I see Jimmy as a lonely man in his fifties, lost in his world and aching to come out but can’t or won’t do it because his emotional wounds keep weighing him down. He’s still human, like the rest of us, a guy who got unlucky in life with harsh parents and an emptiness he cannot ever fill. Now combine this innocence with a darkness captured so beautifully in cartoon panels – about sixteen per page – with pastel colours ranging in brown, oranges and grays. That’s Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth written by Chris Ware.
Ware, Chris. Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth. Pantheon Books: 2003. Print.