{"id":34016,"date":"2025-10-11T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T08:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34016"},"modified":"2025-10-10T15:55:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:55:21","slug":"o-josephine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/10\/11\/o-josephine\/","title":{"rendered":"O Josephine!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Jason<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-68396-210-6 (HB\/digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes<\/em> Discriminatory Content<\/em><\/strong> includ<\/em>ed for dramatic, comedic and ironic effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

Born in 1965 in Molde, Norway, John Arne S\u00e6ter\u00f8y is known globally by his enigmatic, utilitarian nom de plume<\/em> Jason. The shy & retiring auteur started on the path to international cartoon superstardom in 1995, once first graphic novel Lomma full ay regn<\/em><\/strong> (Pocket Full of Rain<\/strong>) won Norway\u2019s biggest comics prize: the Sproing Award.<\/p>\n

From 1987 he had contributed to alternate\/indie magazine KonK<\/em><\/strong> while studying graphic design and illustration at Oslo\u2019s Art Academy. From there he went on to Norway\u2019s National School of Arts and, after graduating in 1994, founded his own comic book Mjau Mjau<\/em><\/strong>. Constantly refining his style into a potent form of meaning-mined anthropomorphic minimalism, Jason cites Lewis Trondheim, Jim Woodring & Tex Avery as primary influences. Moving to Copenhagen Jason worked at Studio Gimle alongside Ole Comoll Christensen (Excreta<\/em><\/strong>, Mar Mysteriet Surn<\/em><\/strong>\/Mayday Mysteries<\/strong>, Den Anden Praesident<\/em><\/strong>, Det Tredje Ojet<\/em><\/strong>) & Peter Snejbjerg (Den skjulte protocol<\/em><\/strong>\/The Hidden Protocol<\/strong>, World War X<\/strong>, Tarzan<\/strong>, Books of Magic<\/strong>, Starman<\/strong>, Batman: Detective 27<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

His efforts were internationally noticed, making waves in France, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Germany and other Scandinavian countries as well as the Americas. He won another Sproing in 2001 – for self-published series Mjau Mjau<\/em><\/strong> – and in 2002 turned nigh-exclusively to producing graphic novels. He won even more major awards.<\/p>\n

Jason\u2019s breadth of interest is wide and deep: comics, movies, animated cartoons, music, literature and pulp fiction all feature equally with no sense of rank or hierarchy. This puckish and egalitarian mixing and matching of inspirational sources always and inevitably produces picture-treatises well worth a reader\u2019s time. Over a succession of tales Jason built and constantly re-employed a repertory company of stock characters to explore deceptively simplistic milieux based on classic archetypes distilled from movies, childhood entertainments, historical and literary favourites. These all role-play in deliciously absurd and surreal sagas centred on his preferred themes of relationships and loneliness. Latterly, Jason returned to such \u201cfound\u201d players as he built his own highly esoteric universe, and even has a whole bizarre bunch of them \u201cteam-up\u201d or clash\u2026<\/p>\n

As always, visual\/verbal bon mots unfold in beguiling, sparse-dialogued, or even as here silently pantomimic progressions, with compellingly formal page layouts rendered in a pared back stripped-down interpretation of Herg\u00e9\u2019s Claire Ligne<\/em> style: solid blacks, and thick outlines dominating settings of seductive monochrome simplicity augmented by a beguiling palette of stark pastels and muted primary colours.<\/p>\n

The majority of his tales brim with bleak isolation, swamped by a signature surreality: largely populated with cinematically-inspired, darkly comic, charmingly macabre animal people ruminating on those inescapable concerns whilst re-enacting bizarrely cast, bestial movie tributes.<\/p>\n

A master of short-form illustrated tales, many Jason yarns were released as snappy little albums perfect for later inclusion in longer anthology collections like this one which gathers a quartet of his very best.
\n\"\"
\nHere the stream of subtle wonderment opens with a suitably understated autobiographical jaunt to the land of Erin and an uneventful but truly mind-blowing progression along \u2018The Wicklow Way\u2019<\/em>. The vacation hikes might be scenic and uneventful, but you\u2019re never alone as long as you\u2019re stuck inside your own head…
\n\"\"
\nWith the addition of a jaundiced inky outlook (and employing \u201cyellow journalism\u201d of the most literal kind) \u2018L. Cohen: A Life\u2019 <\/em>then outlines the experiences and times of the poet, musician and philosopher, with a strong emphasis on whimsical inaccuracy and factual one-upmanship, whilst cinematic classicism underpins \u2018The Diamonds\u2019 <\/em>wherein a pair of softened and barely-boiled detectives lose all objectivity after their scrupulous surveillance of a simple family affects their own hidden lives…
\n\"\"
\nThe low-key dramatics slip back into monochrome and into the twilight zone after weary world traveller Napoleon Bonaparte <\/em>returns to Paris and falls head over shiny heels for infamous exotic dancer Josephine Baker<\/em>. As with all doomed romances, the path to happiness is rocky, dangerous, and potentially insurmountable, but… c\u2019est l\u2019amour!
\n\"\"
\nThese comic tales are strictly for adults but allow us all to look at the world through wide-open childish eyes, exploring love, loss, life, death, boredom and all aspects of relationship politics without ever descending into mawkishness or simple, easy buffoonery. His buffoonery is always slick and deftly designed for maximum effect.<\/p>\n

Jason remains a taste instantly acquired: a creator any true fan of the medium should move to the top of their \u201cMust-Have\u201d list.
\nAll characters, stories, and artwork \u00a9 2019 Jason. This edition \u00a9 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1913 comics legend Joe Simon<\/strong> was born. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve read all those great books he & Jack Kirby co-created, but if you haven\u2019t, why not try The Sandman by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby<\/a><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

In 1957 French comics genius Edmond-Fran\u00e7ois Calvo<\/strong> died. You can not until you read his masterwork La B\u00eate Est Mort <\/em>which we reviewed as The Beast is Dead: World War II Among the Animals<\/a><\/strong> and will probably do again real soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jason (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-68396-210-6 (HB\/digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic, comedic and ironic effect. Born in 1965 in Molde, Norway, John Arne S\u00e6ter\u00f8y is known globally by his enigmatic, utilitarian nom de plume Jason. The shy & retiring auteur started on the path to international cartoon superstardom in 1995, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “O Josephine!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,262,115,63,122,125,405,225,111,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-anthropomorphic","category-biography","category-european-classics","category-historical","category-humour","category-jason","category-mystery","category-satirepolitics","category-war-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8QE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34022,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016\/revisions\/34022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}