Chris
Ware was born in 1967 in Omaha, Nebraska. He published his first comics while
attending the University of Texas in Austin. It was then that Ware began
developing such characters as Quimby the Mouse and an early version of Jimmy
Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. In 1987, Ware’s work caught the attention
of Art Spiegelman, who invited him to contribute to the distinguished annual
comics anthology RAW.
In 1991, Ware moved to Chicago to study printmaking at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1994, Fantagraphics Books began to publish a regular comics series by Ware, enitled The ACME Novelty Library. Fifteen issues were published by Fantagraphics, with the 96-page, full-color 14th issue finishing Jimmy Corrigan in 1999. Ware’s career as a cartoonist and illustrator progressed steadily, as he published his comic strips in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, the Yale Review, Esquire, and nest, amongst many other periodicals. The rest is history: in 2000, Pantheon Books published Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth as a hardcover book, arguably becoming the biggest literary/comics success since Art Spiegelman's Maus.
In 1991, Ware moved to Chicago to study printmaking at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1994, Fantagraphics Books began to publish a regular comics series by Ware, enitled The ACME Novelty Library. Fifteen issues were published by Fantagraphics, with the 96-page, full-color 14th issue finishing Jimmy Corrigan in 1999. Ware’s career as a cartoonist and illustrator progressed steadily, as he published his comic strips in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, the Yale Review, Esquire, and nest, amongst many other periodicals. The rest is history: in 2000, Pantheon Books published Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth as a hardcover book, arguably becoming the biggest literary/comics success since Art Spiegelman's Maus.
Over
the years Ware has been awarded many awards, including the 2001 Guardian First
Book Award, an American Book Award and numerous Eisner Awards. Ware’s work was
also the focus of an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in
2006.
Ware's
graphic stories are both emotional and illustrative. Indeed, as the artist
himself points out, he wants “the pages to be as beautiful as [he] can possibly
make them in order to contradict the stories and the frustrations of the
characters.”
One
reviewer hailed Ware as a “Picasso / Braque and young Eliot of graphic novels”.
And he wasn’t exaggerating.
by Małgorzata Olsza
selected sources:
