Now go read it. Bring tissues. And don’t say I didn’t warn you about the paper cut-out.
Inconsistency. For every perfect issue ( Ramadan ), there’s a meandering arc ( The Kindly Ones ). The art rotates too much. A single “best comic” must be a unified object. Sandman is a brilliant, messy cathedral. Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo) The case for: The double-page spreads. The bike slide. The psychic meltdown of Neo-Tokyo. Otomo drew motion like no one before or since. fucking possible comic best
Watchmen is smarter. Maus is more important. Sandman is more magical. But Jimmy Corrigan is the truth. And the truth, however miserable, is always the fucking best. Now go read it
The second time, you notice the structural mirroring: the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition flashback parallels Jimmy’s modern loneliness. The great-grandfather’s cruelty echoes into the present. Inconsistency
Let’s cut the polite librarian act.
The fourth time, you cry at the ending where nothing is resolved. Because that’s the point. There’s a moment—no spoilers—in the 1893 sequence where a character experiences a horrific accident involving infrastructure. It’s drawn with cold, Victorian precision. You turn the page. And Chris Ware has drawn an insert of a paper cut-out toy of the same accident. Instructions: “Cut along dotted lines. Fold. Glue.”