August 12, 2003
Quimby the Mouse
I was delighted that my copy of Chris Ware’s book Quimby the Mouse arrived yesterday. I ordered it a couple of months ago, after having read the appeal for help from his publishers, the estimable Fantagraphics Books, who at that time were suffering an acute cashflow crisis, thankfully since resolved.
I had bought a few titles from the brothers Hernandez’ marvellous Love and Rockets series, also published by Fantagraphics, years before, and so had good cause to think well of them. Browsing their current catalogue, it was Ware’s books, produced as a series collectively entitled ‘The ACME Novelty Library’, that intrigued me the most…
Seeing as how the combination of word and image is a preoccupation of mine, and consequently a mainstay of this journal, it occurs to me that I should make more effort to spend time in the world of comic-books. Regrettably, I have paid very little attention to this field over the past decade or so. Before that though, at around the time when graphic novels were being touted as the Next Big Thing, I dipped my toe in the water and, besides a few Love and Rockets collections, I also read Alan Moore’s Watchmen and V for Vendetta, Sienkiewicz and Miller’s Elektra: Assassin, and Moebius and Jodorowsky’s The Incal.
In his introduction to Quimby, Ware repeatedly disclaims its contents as near-juvenilia (they were written in his early 20s), and, as he sees it, of relatively little merit. While it’s true that many of the pieces therein are on a rather maudlin, single note, the meticulous love with which this volume was made shines out brightly, and its design is a constant delight to behold.
My source for the four panels from Quimby, above, was this page. Clicking on them will open slightly larger versions of the same. For more information about Ware’s art, this list of links might be a good place to start.
If you haven't already seen it, go and get Chris Ware's 'Jimmy Corrigan', a tour de force in the graphic novel genre.
I heard him speak about it and his other work about a month ago at a Comics Festival here in London at the ICA. He was unassuming to the point of inaudibility but what one did hear was definitely worth hearing.
There are links to him and other graphic novelists etc. on the left-hand column of links on my blog. And of course...er... don't forget to keep checking my own gnovel, at present merely in its infancy.
Posted by: Natalie on August 13, 2003 02:43 AM'Jimmy Corrigan : the smartest kid on earth' is indeed a gigantic, brillant work really worth seeking.
Posted by: Vincent on August 13, 2003 04:16 AMI really enjoyed it myself. I am humbled by the great intellect that one needs to create such a high order of artistic creation. HA
Posted by: Cullen on August 23, 2003 04:22 AMReflections on “Quimby the Mouse” by F. C. Ware
Fantagraphic Books, Seattle, WA
Self proclaimed as “Utterly incomprehensible,” yet, “Nonetheless the popular themes of
v Lost love
v Failed relationships
v Death
Were more or less on the mind of the author during the creation of this volume…,” states the almost microscopic legend on the back page of the cover. That sums up what the whole book contains, as far as can be made out without a magnifying lens to discern the smaller than tiny type found on many of the pages. The first page describes the contents as “Effluvia” and that seems an apt word to use also.
This compilation of many different pieces of art and text that emulate artwork from the 1920’s and ‘30’s, in this book is held together by the themes stated above and the characters of Quimby, Corrigan, and the super hero that keep showing up. The text is wordy, filled with trivial details that are repeated and expounded upon over and over again. The continuous self-pity and distasteful description of morbid details continues throughout the entire book. The author proclaims in page one, “…my life has since been nothing but a farce I’ve had to endure and wear under some sort of impersonal institutional compulsion, like a private school sportcoat, or paper hospital slippers.” Ware is totally self-absorbed and portrays his fantasies and distorted memories in an intentionally meaningless way. On page 2.1 he goes on and on about his obsession with his grandmother’s death. “…blanket clutched tightly in the wads her fists had become, her eyes and tongue lolling back and forth behind half-closed lids and mouth; the machinery was shutting down, the gears were grinding to a halt.” Then a cartoon dated 2/3/02 shows the author taking a trip to the old home of his deceased grandmother. “I took some pine boughs (from her house) and laid them on her grave the next day.”
The drawings, layouts and gutter use is very creative and shows a lot of Ware’s genius experimenting with continuity of story line versus complexity of emotional factors, such as page 10 with arrows going every which way depicting emotional confusion over his past memories. On page 18 there is a double-headed Quimby who looks like he has two penises. Then another strip shows a Quimby with a second head that is a goat. Some kind of symbolism about his feelings about maleness and conscience perhaps. I think perhaps some people can relate to this book on a non-verbal level, but would never admit to it.
Visually interesting, and textually verbose, this book is very peculiar, and reserves the right to be another oddity in the world of graphic literature.
