The fourth time, you cry at the ending where nothing is resolved. Because that’s the point. There’s a moment—no spoilers—in the 1893 sequence where a character experiences a horrific accident involving infrastructure. It’s drawn with cold, Victorian precision. You turn the page. And Chris Ware has drawn an insert of a paper cut-out toy of the same accident. Instructions: “Cut along dotted lines. Fold. Glue.”
It’s cold. Brilliant, yes. Surgical, absolutely. But emotional? The scene where Rorschach is arrested? Great. Heartbreaking? Not really. Watchmen is a masterpiece of intellect, but the “fucking possible best” needs a pulse. Maus (Art Spiegelman) The case for: It won the Pulitzer Prize. It made Nazis into cats and Jews into mice without reducing the horror. It broke the rule that comics couldn’t be “serious literature.” fucking possible comic best
Let’s cut the polite librarian act.
The third time, you realize Jimmy Corrigan is actually a comedy. A bleak, cringe-comedy about a man so passive he makes Charlie Brown look like Tony Robbins. Ware hides jokes in the margins. A sign that says “FREE ADVICE (worth every penny).” A child’s drawing labeled “My Dad” that’s just an empty square. The fourth time, you cry at the ending
Now go read it. Bring tissues. And don’t say I didn’t warn you about the paper cut-out. It’s drawn with cold, Victorian precision
That’s it. No explosion. No confession. Just a cup and a tremor. It’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in any medium. Fucking possible comic best means making sadness feel physical. The first time, you read for plot: a pathetic man meets his grandfather and father, fails to connect, and returns to his empty apartment.
No other comic rewards slow reading like Jimmy Corrigan . You stare at a single page for five minutes. You notice the sign in the background that says “REGRET.” You see the shadow of a father who isn’t there. Ware’s craftsmanship is so obsessive it becomes pathological. And that pathology is the point. Before Jimmy Corrigan , comics had panels. After Jimmy Corrigan , comics had excavations . Ware invents a new language of time: inset panels within panels, dream sequences disguised as reality, instructions for paper toys that mirror the protagonist’s desire to build a functional family.