Jimmy Corrigan

This first book from Chicago author Chris Ware is a pleasantly-decorated
view at a lonely and emotionally-impaired "everyman" (Jimmy Corrigan, the
Smartest Kid on Earth), who is provided, at age 36, the opportunity to meet
his father for the first time. An improvisatory romance which gingerly
deports itself between 1890's Chicago and 1980's small town Michigan, the
reader is helped along by thousands of colored illustrations and diagrams,
which, when read rapidly in sequence, provide a convincing illusion of life
and movement. The bulk of the work is supported by fold-out instructions,
an index, paper cut-outs, and a brief apology, all of which concrete to
form a rich portrait of a man stunted by a paralyzing fear of being
disliked.