Floyd Farland: Citizen of the Future

by Chris Ware

A reworking of strips Ware created as art director for student newspaper The Daily Texan, and his first nationally published work. The story revolves around Floyd Farland, a citizen in an Orwellian state who is such a conformist his own government believes him to be a fearsome subversive.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dystopia, Graphic Novels Comics

43 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Chris Ware is an American cartoonist acclaimed for redefining the visual and narrative possibilities of the graphic novel, known especially for his long-running Acme Novelty Library series and major works including Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, Building Stories, and Rusty Brown. His work is distinguished by its emotional depth, frequently exploring loneliness, memory, regret, and the quieter forms of pain that shape ordinary lives, rendered with extreme visual precision, intricate page designs, and a style that evokes early twentieth-century American illustration, advertising, and architecture. Raised in Omaha and later based in the Chicago area, Ware first attracted attention through his strips for The Daily Texan, where an invitation from Art Spiegelman to contribute to Raw helped encourage him toward an ambitious, self-publishing approach that would define his career. Acme Novelty Library disrupted conventions of comic book production in both format and tone, presenting characters such as Quimby the Mouse and later Rusty Brown in narratives that blend autobiography, satire, and psychological portraiture. Building Stories further expanded his formal experimentation, released as a boxed set of interconnected printed pieces that require the reader to assemble meaning from varied physical formats. Ware’s artistic influences range from early newspaper cartoonists like Winsor McCay and Frank King to the collage and narrative play of Joseph Cornell, and he has spoken about using typography-like logic in his drawing to mirror the fragmented, associative way memory works. His practice remains largely analog, relying on hand drawing and careful layout, though he uses computers for color preparation. Ware has also been active as an editor, designer, and curator, contributing to volumes reprinting historic comic strips, serving as editor of The Best American Comics 2007, and organizing exhibitions such as UnInked at the Phoenix Art Museum. His work has extended into multimedia collaborations, including illustrated documentary materials for This American Life and visual designs for film posters, book covers, and music projects. His later projects include The Last Saturday, serialized online for The Guardian, and Monograph, a retrospective volume combining autobiography with archival material. Widely recognized for his influence, Ware’s books have received numerous honors, including multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards, and Jimmy Corrigan became the first graphic novel to win the Guardian First Book Award. He has exhibited at major institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and his contributions to the medium have led many peers and critics to regard him as one of the most significant cartoonists of his generation.

Reviews

[Ill D · Rating 2 out of 5]

We all gotta start somewhere and that choice of artistic inception for Chris Ware began in 1987 with the decidedly duochromatic: Floyd Farland. Subtitled: a Man of the Future, this influential Nebraskan sought fit to forge a tale in the not-so-distant-future that well reflected another primary work: Lucas’ (semi-influential) THX-1138. While both are, as they should be, regarded as inferior works compared to their later work: we can glean insights from the future by min(d)ing the past.

Case in point: with a decidedly experimental approach, Ware’s first foray into the avenue of sequential art definitely favored style over substance. Surprisingly enough, a minimalist take well contravened my expectations of an artist’s first that usually error on the side of too much. In either case, the artwork while suitably minimalist definitely has an appeal that remains somewhat memorable in my psyche.

Yet, no matter the successes of the visuals, the story itself is mangled, mismanaged, and doesn’t really make any sense. With the original content boiled off, the salt derived from its preceding sources becomes laid bare: Film Noir. Toss in some Neo’ish elements (I got some vibes from ChinaTown) and the product is something along the lines of Blade Runner sans the tech which is replaced with an unabashedly anti-capitalist (and perhaps anti-statist) message. Triangulating our protagonist, the eponymous Floyd Farland, finds himself yanked into a nonsensical conspiracy between the ruling corporatist class and the long-haired/hippie-inspired rebels. Unfeeling with his doe-eyed idealism, our fluoride addled main character is less of an actor and is more acted upon than anything.

Strangely, almost reaching forward toward the future for material to appropriate, the reality warping revelations of the gnostic and the not-so-gnostic variety: recalling The Matrix and Inception respectively, is implemented here to a boofering effect. This thematic flatulence amounts to not much more than a burst of gas that is forgotten as quickly as the awful smell dissipates. Equally concurrent is yet another stream of themery that is muddled in the mix: Screwball comedy. Tinted and toned with a range of comedy that well reflects the slapstick and the nonsensical. Combining cheap laughs on one page and depictions of totalitarian imprisonment on the other, Chris Ware’s first work is wonky at best.

Even when there is some charm, the overall product is lacking in most all departments. Sure, we can give a little since this was his first work but, whether or not this descended from the (now venerable) Chris Ware, Floyd Farland might be a Man of the Future, but this work belongs to a man of the past. Saved only by some idiosyncratic artwork, stars is the best I can give for this one.

[Jay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like everyone else who is into contemporary artists, I think Chris Ware is the pinnacle of the sequential form. I've heard numerous urban legends that his first published work, Floyd Farland, was being bought on eBay by Chris himself to limit the number of copies of circulation. I don't know if that's true, but it should be.

I hate to say this, but Floyd Farland is beyond indifference. It's not that it's bad exactly. It's just that it's bizarro compared to what made Chris Ware famous. Way bizzaro. I mean, it has an anti-establishment sentiment similar to a futuristic homebody character that he draws now, but Jesus. Floyd Farland was published in 1987 and it shows. The noir style seems trapped in a period when Max Headroom was counter-culture.

After reading the first ten pages my first thought was to find Chris Ware's mailing address and send my copy to him because I agree that he really should destroy these. But then I read a little more to see where the story was going. And by the end I knew I was going to keep my copy, because this thing is going to pay for my kid's college education.

If you read this, Chris, I truly am sorry, but I don't think you could argue.

[trestitia ⵊⵊⵊ deamorski · Rating 2 out of 5]

U know I'm an urban planner so when we first started Project Class in freshman, all we do is learning basic design n principles. So abstraction was one of the hardest (and to my opinion the most subjective, n enjoyable) key.
Why the fuck I'm talking about this?

This comic was so difficult to read. Art is all about abstraction -in noir style, just darkest and brightest parts-. In some of the illustrations I couldn't figure out exactly if it's a figure, or a face, or a scene... I can say I understand what's going on but it would be a lie.

Same story of totalitarian shits versus anti-capitalist guerillas I listen every time when I sit down with people who think of themselves as savior of nation and consider what they talk about is not a dystopic bullshit (like in this story) but will be in the future.

[Crispin Kott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd give it five stars, but the story is just too painful. Not the actual story itself, but the story of how I bought a copy of this when I was 17, read it, loved it, put it in plastic and took care of it, and somewhere along the way as I stopped collecting comics, lost it. And now it's worth a lot of dough. Fuck.

[Lorenzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark comedy of errors, in a dystopian universe.
I really enjoyed this one, although it really got confusing by the end: worth a check if you want to see a play onto some of the classic dystopian scenarios.

[Ci · Rating 1 out of 5]

i could not wait to finish this book. i usually enjoy reading dystopia but I've learned, not always. case in point: this bore of a book (I'm sorry, chris). i wanted to give up halfway into this but its such a short book i just pushed myself to finish it. the art is bleh too. monochromatic, minimalist, but not artsy. i am happy that its over and i can forever forget about this book.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

not too shabby for a nineteen year old, breezily fun even, i don't know why so many (except maybe ware himself) are so down on it

[Yvonne]

Love Ware's great work and I'm glad he produced this exception early in his career. He lost me on page 23 of 53. Couldn't follow the story anymore and wasn't interested in the art. I would buy a lost copy in a thrift store though ; - )