Cartoonist Chris Ware talks art careers
Cartoonist Chris Ware offered characteristically self-effacing and humorous advice to those considering a career in comics.
鈥淒on鈥檛 do it!鈥� he joked during the second-annual Winter/Miller Lecture at Skidmore College鈥檚 Tang Teaching Museum Feb. 28.
Ware has created numerous New Yorker 鈥痬agazine covers and is the author of the graphic novels 鈥淛immy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth鈥濃��(2000), 鈥淏uilding Stories鈥濃��(2012), and 鈥�淢onograph鈥濃��(2017). He is often lauded as one of the greatest cartoonists of our time.
The annual Winter/Miller Lecture is unique because Skidmore students who hold the Eleanor Linder Winter 鈥�43 Endowed Internship at the Tang help select the recipients based on their own intellectual and creative interests.
E.B. Sciales 鈥�19, who currently holds the prestigious internship, organized this year鈥檚 talk and interviewed Ware onstage. Earlier in the day, Ware also visited Associate Professor Paul Sattler's drawing class, which was crafted to accompany Ware's visit.
Ware conveyed his customary humor, but also revealed his humble and generous character as he discussed the influences on his career.
鈥淐harles Schultz gave us the first comics character we empathized with in Charlie Brown,鈥� he explained.鈥�
Ware added that his own 鈥痗areer success sometimes surprised him.
鈥淚 thought I would be that guy working at a frame shop that everyone would avoid (because) 鈥楬e鈥檚 that guy working on that book,鈥欌�� he quipped.
Sciales told the audience that she didn鈥檛 hesitate when Ian Berry, the Dayton Director of the Tang, asked her who she wanted to bring. She immediately said, 鈥淐hris Ware.鈥�
An English major with minors in studio art and art history, Sciales revealed that she had loved Ware since she was 13 years old, when her mother bought her 鈥淛immy Corrigan.鈥� His work changed her views of what comic books could do forever. Now, her senior capstone project is a 30-page graphic novel, and she was able to meet one of her heroes.
Her experience, and Ware鈥檚 appearance, are made possible through a gift from the family of Eleanor Linder Winter 鈥�43. More information about the Winter Internship and other opportunities at the Tang are available at
