Chris Ware & Tim Samuelson at the Hammer Museum, 2/25

So I went out to this and it was okay? The main problem with the Hammer Museum is that they don’t have dividers between the urinals in the men’s bathroom.

Ware was talking about cartooning viz. the artists who worked for the Chicago Herald Tribune and there was scattershot discussion of the import of architecture, but it was all loosely strung-together. Ware made incredible generalizations (like “I like Chicago because it has no art scene” which was said in jest but!), and there was no discussion of race, without which Chicago before World War II cannot be understood, even the comics.

Ware either didn’t schedule time to stick around and sign books or didn’t want to, which was a big disappointment; tons of people there had brought stuff, myself included. I was going to ask for a microsketch of Quimby, my favorite of his characters.

Anyway I realized I don’t care what animates Ware’s work – I care about and love the work, which is without peer. And maaan, I haven’t seen a public speaker apologize so much since Matt Derby!