Chris Ware - Jimmy Corrigan - Magic Souvenir Book of Views - Cover

This is the cover of the ephemeral self-published Jimmy Corrigan "Magic Souvenir Book of Views" comic on newsprint. Published in 1992.

With the help of Fireproof Press, Ware self-published these tracts and then peddled them on consignment for $1.25 each in local bookshops such as Quimby's Qveer Store. The pocket-sized format is Ware's nod to the Tijuana Bibles, pornographic comics which were sold under the table throughout North America in the middle yaers of the 20th century, and the rectangular tracts of the underground Christian cartoonist Jack T. Chick. (in Monographics Chris Ware by Daniel Raeburn, Yale University Press 2004).

Signed C Ware 1993

In Monograph Chris Ware states:
The extended Jimmy Corrigan story I'd begun in NewCity was originally printed in a limited two-color palette, of which I tried to take advantage to suggest not only a limited experience of life but also the filthy colors of Chicago. Setting it in an apartment floorplan not unlike my own at 1140 North Winchester, I chose as a recurring talismanic image the (mostly) real buildings visible across the street from my apartment window. Every morning I'd wake up and see these houses with the sun coming up behind them, and would be moved by how the downtown would sometimes be hazy and almost invisible and at other times sharp and threatening against the icy yellow sky."


Chris Ware drew the same "talismanic" image for the cover of Acme Novelty Archive 5 and also added a floral design...
The same image is prominently figured on the cover of Jimmy Corrigan and is also used many times throughout the book.


As described on the Acme Novelty Archive:
"Provided here, and in the following 3 pages, is the first ever public introduction of Jimmy Corrigan's sad story, reproduced in miniature. This story was subsequently distributed by Fantagraphics Books in a larger, more deluxe format, with properly registered colors printed on paper made to withstand the passage of time. Somehow, we like this pathetic and ragged format just a little better.
No, you can't see any details, but you can gather the gestalt of our reproductive accumen simply by letting your gentle eye pass over this, the first page in the Acme Novelty Library's Souvenir Book of views.
Ah, our hero buys a sweater and ponders the death of his mother. Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it? Or perhaps that's merely a side effect of our color "reproduction" and "registration".
The last page in our little exposition - and my personal favorite. If only our scan was sharp enough for you to see Jimmy recognizing his naked mother in the verdant forest of his imagination... may we suggest that you contact The Acme Novelty Library, at 610 N. Humphrey, Oak Park, Illinois with a Postal Code of 60302 , where you may order one of the few remaining copies of this ephemeral, yet historic, publication, and thereafter meander through it's confusing and pointless story to your hearts content.


The art originally sold at the 1996 expo at Galerie Lambiek in Amsterdam (and has been in the collection of the previous owner ever since).
On the website of Lambiek: "On 12 January 1996, Chris Ware held an exhibition in our gallery. At the time, Ware wasn't that famous yet, certainly not in Europe, but Kees liked his work well enough to invite him over to Amsterdam. The creator of Jimmy Corrigan and Quimby the Mouse was quite perplexed. As he wrote himself: "I started to nurse the idea that this was maybe some sort of elaborate tax shelter (...) I mean, what sort of nut flies an obscure comic book artist overseas for an exhibit in a comic shop? There's no way he'd be able to "make back his investment", as any business analyst would say. (...)"