New Forms blog post

Chris Ware(1967~present) is an American illustrator and cartoonist who was born on December 28, 1967. Ware was on born in Omaha, Nebraska where he would read superhero comics and the Peanuts cartoons in his grandparents’ basement. As a young child, he would also watch a lot of TV and watch shows like Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island which would inspire him to do art. He was also exposed to cartoon art when a local neighbourhood cartoonist would work for Ware’s grandfather’s job at the Omaha World Herald newspaper. In the late 80s, Ware attended the University of Texas in Austin to study painting and printmaking. While in university, Ware would draw and publish his own comics every day and week and he would also work for the university’s newspaper, the Daily Texan. His early works included Quimby the Mouse and Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. In 1987, his work caught the eye of the editor of RAW and creator Maus, Art Spiegelman who invited Ware to join RAW and do contributions for an annual comics anthology. Ware moved to Chicago in the early 90s to pursue a master’s degree in printmaking at the Art Institute of Chicago which he didn’t complete but still taught him theories about art and writing. While in Chicago, he also published pages for the newspapers New City and the Chicago Reader. In 1993, Ware and publishing company Fantagraphics Books, published “The ACME: The Novelty Library” which is a 15 issue 96 page full colour semi-regular comic that showcases Ware’s early works such as Quimby, Jimmy Corrigan, and newspaper works. ACME would be published in different sizes and in black and white and would win awards such as the American Book Award in 2000 and the Guardian First Book Award in 2001. Ware has also done work for major publications like the New Yorker, New York Times, Esquire, Village Voice, and the Yale Review.

I enjoy looking at Chris Ware’s simple graphic style which shows his love for the comic book art style. One thing that I really love about Ware is how he combines design and illustration together by utilizing typography, simple shapes, and the way he organizes the panels by making sure that everything looks symmetrical. By using design elements into his illustration and comics, he is able to create a composition that leads the viewer’s eye to whatever the next thing is. Sometimes, his work can be more like a design piece than an illustration but that’s is what I think makes his art so enjoyable. His use of colour is flat and simple but still appealing.