Scans_Daily

Not for the easily freaked out, this one.
So I'm sure you've seen covers such as this before:

Now, suppose you were to take this concept--Superman as godlike, punishing father figure--mix it with one's own childhood resentments, and throw in a whole dollop of the Freudian? You end up with the (still unreprinted) ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY 10 by Chris Ware, a comic so brutal it needed two covers. This is the outer one.(the one on top is the inner) Sadly in scans you don't get the physical quality of the book. But you do get this. Jimmy, it appears, has some lessons to learn about growing up. Buried underneath the alt cartoonist Chris Ware is a former kid reading lots of DC Comics in the 70s, just like you and me. But I find this treatment of the concepts that breeds far superior to, say, that of Geoff Johns. Or any retcon. What Johns does is a species of fanfic. IMO, this is what happens when we verge into actual "Art": Examining one's childhood feelings, rather than trying to run back to one's childhood self. Also in my view, this story--the whole one, which you should track down if you like this--is one of Ware's very, very best. So--As much here as I could excerpt for you. I think there's enough here to get the gist. Keep in mind too, that there are in fact two Jimmy Corrigans--the adult, real-life one we see in the book JIMMY CORRIGAN THE SMARTEST KID ON EARTH, and this one, which is a bit less realistic and is often an outlet for Ware's thoughts about himself as a kid. Or his surreal side.

Jimmy's mom finds a new husband(who looks handsome in her eyes and ugly in Jimmy's--see first page below). Jimmy does not like him. They go on a little boat ride one day.



He also gives him a penny, for a movie machine nearby. But Jimmy saves the penny for when he's the most lonely and never looks.

Meanwhile, Super-Man saves people. Other people. Who deserve it more, presumably, than Jimmy. And all adults.

Sparky and his super-boys take it upon themselves to save Jimmy.

But you do not defy Super-Man.

All except the Olsen cover (c) Chris Ware.
PS -If interested, this week's LULU.