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The Book of Jim
Are you a fan of Salvador Dali? Do pages of images resonating with meaning make you smile? Then you must own this book. Part quasi-autobiography, part dream diary, part strange descriptions of "Jimland Novelties," this book is a "brilliant pastiche of crazed emotions, wonderfully textured with lush, attentive artwork [and] oddly haunting," says Hugh Bonar in a Comics Journal review. There is nothing like Jim Woodring. Period.
117 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Jim Woodring
171 books223 followersJim Woodring was born in Los Angeles in 1952 and enjoyed a childhood made lively by an assortment of mental an psychological quirks including paroniria, paranoia, paracusia, apparitions, hallucinations and other species of psychological and neurological malfunction among the snakes and tarantulas of the San Gabriel mountains.
He eventually grew up to bean inquisitive bearlike man who has enjoyed three exciting careers: garbage collector, merry-go-round-operator and cartoonist. A self-taught artist, his first published works documented the disorienting hell of his salad days in an “illustrated autojournal” called Jim. This work was published by Fantagraphics Books and collected in The Book of Jim in 1992.
He is best known for his wordless comics series depicting the follies of his character Frank, a generic cartoon anthropomorph whose adventures careen wildly from sweet to appalling. A decade’s worth of these stories was collected in The Frank Book in 2004. The 2010 Frank story Weathercraft won The Stranger’s Genius Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for that year. The most recent Frank book, Congress of the Animals, was released in 2011.
Woodring is also known for his anecdotal charcoal drawings (a selection which was gathered in Seeing Things in 2005), and the sculptures, vinyl figures, fabrics and gallery installations that have been made from his designs. His multimedia collaborations with the musician Bill Frisell won them a United States Artists Fellowship in 2006. He lives in Seattle with his family and residual phenomena.
-Walter Foxglove
He eventually grew up to bean inquisitive bearlike man who has enjoyed three exciting careers: garbage collector, merry-go-round-operator and cartoonist. A self-taught artist, his first published works documented the disorienting hell of his salad days in an “illustrated autojournal” called Jim. This work was published by Fantagraphics Books and collected in The Book of Jim in 1992.
He is best known for his wordless comics series depicting the follies of his character Frank, a generic cartoon anthropomorph whose adventures careen wildly from sweet to appalling. A decade’s worth of these stories was collected in The Frank Book in 2004. The 2010 Frank story Weathercraft won The Stranger’s Genius Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for that year. The most recent Frank book, Congress of the Animals, was released in 2011.
Woodring is also known for his anecdotal charcoal drawings (a selection which was gathered in Seeing Things in 2005), and the sculptures, vinyl figures, fabrics and gallery installations that have been made from his designs. His multimedia collaborations with the musician Bill Frisell won them a United States Artists Fellowship in 2006. He lives in Seattle with his family and residual phenomena.
-Walter Foxglove
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 19, 2019
To read The Book of Jim, a compilation of the Jim autojournal comix, is to tour the depths of Jim Woodring's mental landscape. In the introduction, Woodring admits that most of the contents are unedited—straight from brain to page. Some are direct transcriptions of dreams and, as such, often stray into deeply opaque territory. I confess to experiencing moments of intermittent befuddlement and subsequent disengagement. And yet there are enough recurring landmarks to suggest the faint map of a world of sorts, the world inside Jim Woodring, into which I found myself lured, almost against my will. It is an alternately frightening, inexplicable, and darkly absurd place. Woodring's vision seemingly knows no bounds. One of my favorite stories follows the travails of a newly emerged garden slug as it makes its way across a yard and up the exterior wall of a house, inside of which a poet struggles with the labor of her craft. It is here where Woodring wields striking similes such as this: 'She remained perversely buoyant, like a skinned moose in a bucket of mercury.' And then there are the memorable strips about Big Red, an enormous housecat intent, as many cats are, on eviscerating lesser creatures. Finally, the book ends with a two-page spread of 'Jimland Novelties', ranging from $2 booklets of sketches up to a $30 subscription to Jim's Dream of the Month Club, or perhaps an Escaped Convict Weathervane hand-crafted from pine and tin for $300? Were these real? There's a Seattle address listed to which one could send checks or money orders. Cursory research revealed that at one time the house at that address was indeed owned by Mr. Woodring. Did anyone ever order a Slimy Pink Wall in a Bag? I will probably never know and that's fine. Despite its hit-or-miss connections for me, the sheer scale of inspiration on display here bumps the rating up to a 3.5.
I am trapped in a tube that moves up and down, that rises with the wind and falls with the passing of youth. I live in a land among a million empty sheds, and the sow bugs at the bottoms of the boards are as alike as peas. I live in a land where everything is beautiful and I cannot get to my feet. I am unable to stand in the ankle-deep tide. I am lost in the inch of sweet water. The rest is wool, rust, wood, paper, and time-rot.
May 14, 2023
O mais perto que você vai chegar de ter os pesadelos de outra pessoa.
December 1, 2011
No where near as whimsical and far less free-form as the "Frank"s of the very recent past. A bit more anxious and ponderous. And comprehensible. Less enjoyable to look at. My tender eyes prefer smoothed edges and rounder things. Right, ladies? Still very great. The stories are to DIE for.
April 2, 2010
Astonishing. Changed the way I do business with the Universe--and all of my business relationships. Full stars.
March 19, 2014
Full of life stuff that takes you on a very personable ride.
October 31, 2015
Like reading a book of dreams you haven't had yet.
November 10, 2018
Weird, disturbing, and interesting. The Book of Jim is a surreal and engaging collection of comics about...characters and places. I don't know. It's even hard to understand what it is.
I'm not even sure what it is. It's surreal, trippy, and very compelling. It sort of defies an easy explanation. It's just something you have to read to understand.
I liked it a lot and keep it as part of my permanent collection. I hope that on my deathbed I realize what it was about.
I'm not even sure what it is. It's surreal, trippy, and very compelling. It sort of defies an easy explanation. It's just something you have to read to understand.
I liked it a lot and keep it as part of my permanent collection. I hope that on my deathbed I realize what it was about.
December 2, 2022
This reads like a rough draft for Woodring’s later channeling of dream imagery, but there are some good short stories and illustrated anecdotes in here.
October 13, 2009
What an amazing guy, Mr. Woodring leads some of the most interesting life I have read in autobiographical comics. Every ink line is worth savoring with your eyeballs.
April 14, 2012
Merely a stepping stone to future greatness.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews