Meaningful Every Day Life

     In Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid in the World, Jimmy and the other characters around him are often depicted as doing simple, mundane, every day tasks.  This would not usually make a very interesting story, but Ware is able to shape each event into just that.  One example I thought really encompassed this was the page where the doctor is examining Jimmy after he is hit by the car.  This is a very routine examination that happens every day and does not have much meaning.  However, Ware has drawn numerous pictures and has more dialogue than some ten page segments.  He provides immaculate detail of everything the doctor does including sounds.  There is nothing special about this event, but the way the page is drawn gives it a sense of importance.

     A similar phenomenon happens when Jimmy and his dad get food after visiting the doctor.  It is a very plain, normal diner; nothing is very special about it.  Again, though there are a lot of detailed pictures and dialogue between Jimmy and his father.  Ware has made this idea of dullness into something complex.  There are other people in pictures that there are words that Jimmy or his dad are saying, which makes the picture confusing and forces the reader to pay attention to who is actually saying the words and follow the conversation.  He makes a point to show the food by itself, which is not anything exciting, just a grilled cheese and a coke.  The face of the waitress is not shown because she is not important to the page and Ware wanted the attention solely on Jimmy and his dad.  

     By making these dull moments more detailed, Ware has forced the focus to the page.  This is why he adds a lot of dialogue, because the reader is already engaged in the page and will pay more attention to the words.  These pages allow us to get a better in depth look at the relationship between Jimmy and his father, though.  By putting them in a low stress normal atmosphere, the reader can concentrate on what they are actually saying to each other and how they interact.  Within the dullness of the mood, the complexity of Jimmy's relationship with his father can be examined more closely.  Especially in the page with the doctor, his father does not stop talking.  Jimmy only answers the doctor to his questions of if something hurts or not.  By getting past all the dull pictures and nothingness, a bond between father and son becomes more apparent.