There's really no way to describe Jimmy Corrigan other than as one of the finer works of literature produced lately. Chris Ware probably gets the most attention for his complex layouts—repeating images, setting a tempo, and ever-varying sizes for dramatic impact. However, his writing is frankly incredible as well, and under-appreciated since he's also an amazing artist.

Jimmy Corrigan in all generations is a curious character: utterly passive, and almost a blank slate for what others would project on him. The modern Corrigan is quickly knocked off-balance at the beginning of the book, and never manages to recover his bearings. The historical Corrigan is almost the same—passive, beset upon by the world—and learns even moreso to regret even momentarily acting on his impulses. Both go through some awful tragedies, rendered in heartbreaking detail by Ware. I don't really want to go into much more detail, but it's tough.

I originally read this book back in college, and revisiting it these years later was unexpectedly hard, emotionally-speaking. I feel like I've made progress in some areas covered by the book, but in others have fallen further behind. I felt like I got more out of the book now that I'm older, plus I actually know how to read his layouts properly instead of my original read's guessing. As a weird added twist, the book started to disintegrate as I read through it this time—a strange almost-echo of the story's themes. It's fantastic, and I can't wait to see Building Stories coming out this fall.