{"id":26374,"date":"2022-08-24T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T08:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=26374"},"modified":"2022-08-23T12:00:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T12:00:47","slug":"almost-silent-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/08\/24\/almost-silent-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost Silent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Jason<\/strong>, translated by Kim Thompson<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-606-99315-6 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

John Arne Saeterr\u00f8y, who works under the pen-name Jason, was born in Molde, Norway in 1965, and appeared on the international cartoonists\u2019 scene at age 30 with his first graphic novel Lomma full ay regn<\/em> (Pocket Full of Rain<\/strong><\/em>) which won that year\u2019s Sproing Award<\/strong> (Norway\u2019s biggest comics prize).<\/p>\n

He followed with the series Mjau Mjau<\/em> (winning another Sproing<\/strong> in 2001) and in 2002 turned almost exclusively to producing graphic novels. Now an international star, he has won seven major awards from such disparate regions as France, Slovakia and the USA.<\/p>\n

Here the fine folks at Fantagraphics collected four of his earliest graphic novels in a superb hardback companion to the 2009 classic [Low Moon]<\/strong> which provides more of Jason\u2019s surreal and cinematic, darkly hilarious anthropomorphic ruminations on his favourite themes of relationships and loneliness, viewed as ever through a charmingly macabre cast of silent movie archetypes, cinematic monsters and sad sack chumps.<\/p>\n

Told in pantomimic progressions rather than full stories – and often as classical chase scenes reminiscent of Britain\u2019s The Benny Hill Show<\/strong> – the wonderment begins with breakthrough album \u2018Meow, Baby\u2019<\/strong><\/em> wherein a mummy goes walkabout from his museum sarcophagus encountering bums and gamins, vampires, aliens, angels, devils, skeletons and cops – always so many cops – in hot pursuit\u2026<\/p>\n

This primarily monochrome collection is called Almost Silent<\/strong> because it mostly is. Moreover, what dialogue appears is never informative or instructive, merely window dressing. The artwork is displayed in formalised page layouts rendered in a minimalist evolution of Herg\u00e9\u2019s Claire Ligne<\/em> style: solid blacks, thick lines and settings of seductive simplicity unwinding like an unending, infinite zoetrope show. These early works are collections of gags and situations more experienced than read.<\/p>\n

A second untitled tale follows the perceived social inadequacies of males hungry for love: a werewolf, caveman – complete with courting cudgel, a Martian, Frankenstein\u2019s monster<\/em> and even Elvis<\/em>. All try and die in the modern dating whirl\u2026<\/p>\n

The next sequence introduces cannibal ghouls and a movie-buff Travis Bickle\/Arnold Schwarzenegger<\/em> wannabe also starving for acceptance, and continues with the bleakly comedic \u2018Return of the Mummy\u2019<\/em> and a delightfully tongue in cheek pastiche of Tintin<\/strong> and Blake and Mortimer<\/strong> entitled \u2018The Mummy\u2019s Secret\u2019<\/em>, featuring the entire ghastly cast, before ending with a fascinating selection of 3-panel gag strips.<\/p>\n

The next featured volume is \u2018Tell Me Something\u2019<\/strong><\/em>: a more ambitiously visual outing that acknowledges its antecedents and influences by using silent movie dialogue cards instead of word balloons. It follows a plucky heroine as she searches for affection in all the wrong places with her Harold Lloyd<\/em>-like would-be beau. Also in attendance are the usual cast of filmic phenomenons\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018You Can\u2019t Get There from Here\u2019<\/strong><\/em> concentrates mainly on the 1930s movie Frankenstein <\/strong>cast: the monsters, their equally artificial wives, their lovelorn and covetous creators and even the Igors<\/em>: misshapen, wizened assistants also all seeking that one special person – or thing. Here the art is supplanted by the startling and highly effective addition of bronze inks for a compelling duo-tone effect that sits oddly well with the beast\u2019s bittersweet search for his stolen, bespoke bride.<\/p>\n

We conclude with a rather riotous adventure romp. \u2018The Living and the Dead\u2019<\/strong><\/em> details a perfect first date interrupted by the rising of the unquiet dead and end of civilisation in the rotting teeth of carnivorous zombies on their final march – possibly the funniest and most romantic yarn in the whole book.<\/p>\n

Jason\u2019s work always jumps directly into the reader\u2019s brain and heart, using the beastly and unnatural to ask gentle questions about basic human needs in a wicked quest for answers. That you don\u2019t ever notice the deep stuff because of the clever gags and safe, familiar \u201cfunny-animal\u201d characters should indicate just how good a cartoonist he is.<\/p>\n

His comic tales are strictly for adults but allow us all to look at the world through wide-open childish eyes. He is a taste instantly acquired and a creator any fan should move to the top of the \u201cMust-Have\u201d list, so consider this superb hardback your guaranteed entry into his fabulous fun world\u2026
\n\u00a9 2009 Jason. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jason, translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-606-99315-6 (HB\/Digital edition) John Arne Saeterr\u00f8y, who works under the pen-name Jason, was born in Molde, Norway in 1965, and appeared on the international cartoonists\u2019 scene at age 30 with his first graphic novel Lomma full ay regn (Pocket Full of Rain) which won that year\u2019s … <\/p>\n

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