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Analysis Of The Book ' The Smartest Kid On Earth ' By Charles Hatfield Essay

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Charles Hatfield states in his essay, An Art of Tensions, that comics are marked as being “easy” to read, when in fact they are a complex means of communication. “Comic readers must call upon different reading strategies, or interpretive schema, than they would use in their reading of conventional written text.” Chris Ware is often noted as a cartoonist who elevates comics because of the number of literary awards his work has received. Ware got his start in the 1991 in RAW Magazine, continuing his work in his series Acme Novelty Library. One of his most notable comics is Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth. Readers learn to appreciate his comics on a higher level because they cannot rush through his work. It’s complexity is displayed through his use of text, diagrams, and pacing. Readers value Ware’s artistry because they have to work for understanding.
Readers appreciate Chris Ware’s work on a higher level because it’s complexity causes the reader to slow down to absorb the information being given to them. This is largely due to the pace of the comics. Hatfield goes on to state in his essay that the author’s task is to give the reader an imagined sequence and it’s the reader’s job is to translate the series into a narrative sequence by achieving closure. For instance the author must develop a rhythm for the reader to follow. So that when they break the rhythm with a single image to give them a key piece of information it has impact. When Jimmy is in the airport on

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