Reddit reviews Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (Pantheon Graphic Library)

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth is the mopiest, indiest thing you will ever read.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Safe Area Gorazde By Joe Sacco

The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert

Blankets by Craig Thompson

Not non-fiction but

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware is about as non-pop, non-pulp as it gets.

Just finished this and immediately ordered her strip collection Dykes to Watch Out For. This is a really odd and heart-wrenching tale regarding a father/daughter relationship all told through the lens of different pieces of literature.

I think of it as a cross between Blankets and Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth.

Well Craig Thompson also did Goodbye Chunky Rice, Carnet De Voyage and Habibi. As far as themes and plot go they don't have a lot of similarities (except maybe Chunky Rice) but the art is phenomenal in them and Habibi works with the Quran much like how Blankets spends a lot of time talking about Christianity.

As far as autobiographical comics go though, I'd suggest American Splendour (specifically "Our Cancer Year", "Cleveland" and "The Quitter"), A Contract With God, and Love And Rockets (try "Maggie the Mechanic", its not for everyone though, it has some scifi in this book but that kind of fades away as the series progresses to focus more on the characters and their relationships).

If you want something that experiments with the format of a comic book a lot you might want to look into Asterios Polyp, Cerebus (Jaka's Story and Church and State I & II are the highlights there) and the works of Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan is a good starting point). As I said though, these books, while some of the most brilliant comics there are, are very experimental and as such it helps to have some grounding in comics before you give them a try. I'd actually go so far as to call all three of these even better than Blankets though and I thought Blankets was great.

Chris Ware isn't for everybody, but he's certainly my favorite alt comic author. Of course Jimmy Corrigan is considered his most important title, but I feel his work has grown more ambitious with every title. You can go bankrupt collecting the ACME Novelty library, but this collects lots of the material as well.

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware

"Bone" by Jeff Smith -- Don't let the simple, cartoon-like style fool you; this one is a killer. From start to finish, Smith takes you on an epic adventure packed full of action, genuine humor, and plenty of heart. What I like best about "Bone" is that it didn't try to be the next "Watchmen." It didn't try to be grim or gritty. It's great.

"Blankets" by Craig Thompson -- They just re-released a hardcover edition of this story, which makes it a perfect time to pick it up. I can't say much about this story, except that it is a great example of autobiography in comics form. Anybody who has ever been in love will resonate with this story.

"Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth" by Chris Ware -- This is an intimidating piece of work; it's lengthy, the story jumps around, and there is a lot of responsibility placed on the reader to understand the story. Still, Jimmy Corrigan is a unique, heart-felt story about the ties that bind and influence a family across generations. I'm sorry: that might have made it sound like a schmaltzy piece of fluff -- when it actually is a heart-wrenching piece of heartbreak.

"All Star Superman" by Grant Morrison -- This isn't Watchmen. It isn't dark. It isn't full of sex or drugs or over-the-top violence. It is, however, an incredible look at what makes a Superman and what he has come to mean to our culture.

Give those four a shot. You might like them.

Jimmy Corrigan The Smartest Kid On Earth - I was put off by the title and the cover, but it's a blend of stories - one about a kind of slow guy who is sort of shy and troubled and you experience things kind of as he does; the other a story from the past about a difficult family life.

I like graphic novels that have a lot of realism and project a lot of feeling, which is why I loved Blankets and think it's Craig Thompson's best work. Some others that you might want to Google:

• Phonograph Vol. 2 - A story about different young adults who frequent a club. I don't care for "superhero" stuff but they have different powers, even though the stories are about their interactions rather than actions.
  
• Girls - A story about an alien pod that lands, surrounds a town, and creates a woman that seduces men in order to lay eggs and produce offspring, ultimately pitting the men and the women of the town against each other even though the aliens are the common enemy (and they only attack the women of the town)
  
• Y: The Last Man - A story about all men on earth dying except for one, who tries to survive and understand life and find his fiancee

A bit different from the other stuff, but Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth is good.