Rusty Brown: Dive into the world of Chris Ware at Delcourt

Almost two decades after his cult graphic novel, Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware returns with his spiritual and autofictional sequel: Rusty Brown available from Delcourt since November 4, 2020. Before offering it as a " graphic novel ", Chris Ware had first self-published Rusty Brown in issue 16 of his Acme Novelty Library, published in 2005. It is therefore 15 years later that Chris Ware publishes Rusty Brown in a comic book, which could be described as biographical. A dense work that consists of 356 pages. Through this album, we follow the very sad life of a sensitive boy with an overflowing imagination: Rusty Brown. Six other characters are also at the center of the plot, and one of them, Franklin Christenson Ware, is none other than the author's double. One of the peculiarities of Rusty Brown is his particularly dense narrative construction. Reading this book is a real exercise that will require special attention.

A gallery of original characters

Chris Ware delivers us more than a biography of Rusty Brown, he delivers his too. Through the character of Franklin Christenson Ware, the author confides to us his fears, his fears, his questions, especially the one at the beginning of the work where he is questioned on the "modern feeling of 'exhausted dislocation'". Rusty Brown begins with a long introduction of a hundred pages in which the author introduces us to all the protagonists who sneak in one after the other at specific times. So we follow the reality of little Rusty Brown while following those of the other characters, as if we were in parallel universes. This introduction takes place during a back-to-school at a Catholic school in Omaha, Nebraska: which are the hometown as well as the school Chris Ware attended during his younger years. In this school, Rusty is cruelly marginalized and morally harassed by other students. This situation changes when a new student appears: Chalky White.

Children's life versus adult life

Several notions are exploited in this work. For example, Walter Brown, father of Rusty Brown but also a teacher in his school, seems to be a man who suffers from depression. it goes through different stages: questioning, the desire to give up everything and suicidal thoughts. All these negative feelings contrast with his appearance. Indeed, Walter Brown has a baldness encircled by two red commas, which gives him a pathetic clown head.