I was very overwhelmed while reading the first three fourths(ish) of Jimmy Corrigan. I felt the anxiety and confusion that Jimmy felt by the way the graphic novel was set up. I thought the use of words and dialogue is very interesting in this graphic novel. The diction is very precise and the images are very bold. One example is in the first half of the book, on the bottom right corner in a blue and white panel. It says “A NOOSE into which Mr. Corigan refuses to stick his tongue” and it shows two hands and a ring being given after a series of pictures of Jimmy’s childhood. Because the graphic novel isn’t filled with text, we are able to see an emphasis on this one frame. While a noose isn’t pictured, the reader can easily sense the alternative meaning behind the image and the word choice.
Another place where language was used in an interesting manor is where it says “ANAYWAY following a taxicab ride during which our hero listens silently to his father…” I thought the choice of hero was interesting since we’re reading a graphic novel that isn’t about a hero, or a superhero. What type of hero is Jimmy? Is he a hero overcoming his childhood? I also liked how transitional words like thus, later, and and were used as transitions between panels. I tend to have issues reading the dialogue of our graphic novels too quickly which makes me unable to focus on the action. I think it allows the reader to digest the story in our own and not rely so much on what the characters are telling us about it. Since some of the story is in Jimmy’s head, isn’t the lack of dialogue helping us figure out what he’s thinking? Or does it make us more confused? What’s the deal with all of the peaches? I didn’t figure that out. I’m still getting used to this graphic novel thing.
I enjoyed Ware’s spatial decisions in that everything is very neatly tucked away from each other; rarely does he and another character occupy the same frame. This visual isolation in the comic conveys Jimmy’s social isolation. What sets the characters even further from each other is the way that Ware separates the characters (if they do appear together) and colors the frame’s background differently. This visual differentiation is important because it implies a specific character’s mood or reaction individually, making the emotional delivery more intense. The colors are usually stark contrasts as well, such as the sequence toward the end of the book in which Amy, Jimmy, and Jimmy Sr. are discussing the condition of Amy’s and Jimmy’s father. This sequence is distinctive for a number of reasons, really — it captures one of the rare moments in which a frame is shared by all three characters rather than separating them by gutters, Jimmy expresses one of the key problems in his life that have led him to be such a meek man-boy (“I always mess everything up…I just want people to like me!”), and Ware has removed him from his surroundings/Amy and Jimmy Sr. by giving him a dark red background while the rest of the frames are a cool green-yellow. This theme of social, emotional, and mental isolation is accentuated by the contrast between hot and cool colors — hot red versus cool green. Jimmy is constantly walking on eggshells, painfully, through his life. After his emotional outburst the red eventually tapers off and becomes yellow-green again, but awkwardly so, timed slowly along with Amy bringing him a Kleenex, Jimmy blowing his nose loudly, and Jimmy Sr. tapping restlessly at the kitchen table. I can’t get over how well Ware delivered the timing, how he visually conveyed uncomfortable pauses through background “noise” and color-coordinated emotions.