The thing I like most about books is that anybody can afford them. They have an innate valuelessness. Chris Ware More Quotes by Chris Ware More Quotes From Chris Ware Cartoons are not real drawings, because they are drawings intended to be read. Chris Ware drawing cartoon real As children, as we learn what things are, we are slowly learning to dismiss them visually. As adults, entirely submerged in words and concepts, we spend almost all of our time thinking and worrying about the past and the future, hardly ever looking at or engaging with the world visually. Chris Ware children past thinking I think cartooning gets at, and re-creates on the page, some sixth sense ... in a way no other medium can. Chris Ware pages way thinking Well, there are better cartoonists now than there ever have been. I firmly believe that. There's some amazing work being done. Chris Ware wells done believe Sometimes I get worried I'm getting too caught up in the nauseatingly oily smoothness of my own line, when all I'm trying to do is make it as clear as possible. Chris Ware lines trying sometimes No one blames themselves if they don't understand a cartoon, as they might with a painting or "real" art; they simply think it's a bad cartoon. Chris Ware real art thinking My grandmother was an unparalleled storyteller who gave me a preview of how life might turn out, and also fortified my empathy. Chris Ware empathy grandmother might As I've gotten older I've occasionally found myself nostalgic for earlier periods of solitude, though I realize that's also likely a false nostalgia, as I know there was nothing I wanted more during those periods than to not be alone, whatever that means. Chris Ware solitude nostalgia mean Cartooning is an artistic commitment that requires the full attention and passion of the artist on every level; one should not get into it if one expects to do anything more than produce a book or a story that is exactly as one wants it to be. Chris Ware passion book commitment Every city began as a campsite - pg. 25 Chris Ware cities It's somehow more comforting to imagine that one's suffering is unique, and to measure against what one doesn't know, rather than against what one does. Chris Ware unique suffering comforting I think it has most to do with the way in which a story is told, whether it feels real either via the music of the telling or the honesty of the story. Chris Ware honesty real thinking Drawing the kind of comics that I do takes so long that to specifically address something as transitory as a political matter in it would be about as effective as composing a symphony with hopes that it would depose a despot. On top of that, I personally don't think that my version of art is the best way to deal with political issues at all, or, more specifically, the place to make a point. Not that art can't, but it's the rare art that still creates something lasting if its main aim was purely to change a particular unfair social structure. Chris Ware long art thinking I have a preponderance to look smug in photos; something to do with the way my mouth turns up at the corners. Chris Ware mouths looks way Comics, at least in periodical form, exist almost entirely free of any pretense; the critical world of art hardly touches them, and they're 100% personal. Chris Ware transformation world art During my Austin years, I was drawing a regular strip for the University Of Texas newspaper, going to school, delivering blood, and trying to change my approach and "style" as much as I could, since I knew that I'd calcify as I got older. Chris Ware texas change school Comics are not illustration, any more than fiction is copywriting. Illustration is essentially the application of artistic technique or style to suit a commercial or ancillary purpose; not that cartooning can't be this (see any restaurant giveaway comic book or superhero media property as an example), but comics written and produced by a cartoonist sitting alone by him- or herself are not illustrations. They don't illustrate anything at all, they literally tell a story. Chris Ware superhero style book I don't think there's any independent cartoonist whose stuff I don't like or respect in at least some way or another. We're all marginal laborers - we're practically medical oddities - so I don't see why we can't all be nice to each other. Chris Ware respect independent nice I guess I just don't like being physically in front of people I don't know very well, because I expect to be "seen through," or, even worse, instantly hated. Chris Ware wells hated people Comics are not a genre, but a developing language. Chris Ware language
