Mind in the Gutter

Observation: Ware uses the gutters in Jimmy Corrigan to play with the passage of time, in order to evoke emotional responses from the readers.

Question: What kind of emotional responses?

Answer/Observation: Since Jimmy Corrigan deals with the awkwardness the title character feels in most social situations and reflects the overall sadness, Ware packs most of the pages with several panels to make the reader feel the akwardness themselves. As we read the novel, we are pulled into the tension of a moment by Ware's use of panel-to-panel (McCloud 70) transitions. These are on display throughout the book, but I felt the tension and slow pace most when little Jimmy was left with his dying grandmother and when Jimmy and Amy are sitting in the hospital in shock after seeing their injured dad. That both panels place characters in proximity to a dying loved one only highlights the tension for the reader.

In contrast, Ware speeds time up using subject-to-subject and scene-to-scene panels (McCloud 71) to illustrate some of Jimmy's fantasies and the kids playing hide and seek. The subject-to-subject and scene-to-scene panels of Jimmy's fantasies highlight the disjointed-ness of Jimmy's thoughts while fantasizing and help the reader realize they are seeing his fantasy and not part of the story (although sometimes it's hard to catch at first). For the kids playing hide and seek, the scene-to-scene nature of the panels gives the reader the feeling of freedom and the quickness with which children move while playing. This was an interesting juxtaposition with the general slow pace of Jimmy Corrigan.

Q: Where does Ware change this use of the gutter?

A/O: A unique and shocking use of the gutter is when Ware depicts Chicago pre- & post-fire. By using the whole page to create a Chicago cityscape with great detail, Ware is able to shock the reader on the following page with the wreckage of the city. By using the turning of the page as a scene-to-scene transition gutter, Ware passes time quickly and jars the reader with the carnage of burned-out Chi-town, making the reader's emotional response that much stronger.

In addition, Ware uses aspect-to-aspect (McCloud 72) to illustrate Jimmy's world through a series of postcard-like snapshots of places in town. While not specifically stated as part of the city, the images show up through out as settings for activity in the novel. Through the aspect-to-aspect gutter transition on this page, Ware is able to create a pretty complete picture of the town without really showing any homes. Although they are absent from the pictures, because we know from experience people would live in close proximity to gas stations, restaraunts, and grocery stores, we are able to complete our picture of the town. As McCloud says, we assume they are there, even though they are not (61) on this particular page. These places could be in any town.