WARREN PUBLISHING 677
and Françoise Mouly: Ware’s ingenious strips combined autobiographical anecdotes
with the clichéd devices of superhero comics, functioning as a meta-commentary on
the grammar of the comics form.
After Ware moved to Chicago to briefl y attend the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, he began contributing strips to local arts newspapers New City and Th e Chi-
cago Reader , slowly building the story of Jimmy Corrigan, which would also unfold (with
many alterations along the way) in his Acme Novelty Library. In both Jimmy Corrigan
and subsequent work Ware often draws upon iconographic forms such as architectural
blueprints, fl owcharts, and medical illustrations in addition to earlier comics. His page
layouts veer from single-page panels to pages of incredible density, with transitions
exploiting a vast range of temporal and spatial possibilities: few other comics push so
often towards the limits of the form, especially to tell stories devoted to exploring tender
and painful human emotions.
Ware’s published sketchbooks, Th e Acme Novelty Date Book Volume One, 1986–
1995 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2003) and Th e Acme Novelty Date Book Volume Two,
1995–2002 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2007) reveal a much looser style than the extreme
precision of his published work. Ware has also edited a volume of McSweeney’s (#13,
2004) devoted to comics and featuring a typically elaborate Ware-designed dust jacket,
and Th e Best American Comics 2007 (Houghton Miffl in). He has also played a key
role in reprints of the classic comic strips Krazy Kat by George Herrimann and Gaso-
line Alley by Frank King, both of which have strongly infl uenced his own work. Ware
has received frequent recognition for his comics, including multiple Eisner and Har-
vey Awards , and his work has been featured in several museum exhibitions. He has
also created toys and sculptures as off shoots of his comics work, and published Th e
Rag-Time Ephemeralist , devoted to the early American musical style that Ware claims
informs his understanding of the structure of comics and the emotions both forms
generate in their audiences.
Selected Bibliography: Kannenberg, Jr., Gene. “Th e Comics of Chris Ware.” In Th e
Language of Comics: Word and Image, ed. Robin Varnum and Christina T. Gibbons.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001, 174–97; Raeburn, Daniel. Chris Ware.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Corey K. Creekmur
WARREN PUBLISHING. Founded by James Warren in 1969, Warren Publishing
published horror , dark fantasy , and science fi ction comics with an adult twist that
bypassed the Comics Code by virtue of the magazine format until 1983. Th eir most
well-known publications were Creepy , Eerie , Vampirella , and Famous Monsters of Film-
land. Creepy , Eerie , and Vampirella were all characterized by lush painted covers, an
inner front cover with a color drawing of the fl agship character often by Bernie Wright-
son in Creepy and Eerie , and Jose Gonzales in Vampirella (112 issues from September
1969 to March 1983) introducing usually six stories. Warren’s Eerie was not connected
