{"id":35509,"date":"2026-05-16T08:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35509"},"modified":"2026-05-15T17:40:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:40:03","slug":"upside-dawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/05\/16\/upside-dawn\/","title":{"rendered":"Upside Dawn"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Jason <\/strong>(Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-68396-652-4 (HB\/digital edition)<\/p>\n

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

Born in 1965 in Molde, Norway, John Arne S\u00e6ter\u00f8y is known by enigmatic, utilitarian nom de plume<\/em> Jason. The shy & retiring auteur first took the path to cartoon superstardom in 1995, once debut graphic novel Lomma full ay regn<\/em><\/strong> (Pocket Full of Rain<\/strong>) won Norway\u2019s biggest comics prize: the Sproing Award. From 1987 he had contributed to alternate\/indie magazine KonK<\/em><\/strong> while studying graphic design and illustration at Oslo\u2019s Art Academy.<\/p>\n

From there he took on Norway\u2019s National School of Arts and, on 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 has cited Lewis Trondheim, Jim Woodring & Tex Avery as primary influences. He moved to Copenhagen, working 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>) and Peter Snejbjerg (Den skjulte protocol<\/em>\/The Hidden Protocol<\/strong>, World War X<\/strong>, Tarzan<\/strong>, Batman: Detective 27<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Jason\u2019s efforts were internationally noticed, making waves in France, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Germany and other Scandinavian countries as well as the Americas and he won another Sproing in 2001 – for self-published series Mjau Mjau<\/em><\/strong> – before in 2002 turning nigh-exclusively to producing graphic novels. He won even more major awards.<\/p>\n

Jason\u2019s breadth of interest is wide & deep: comics, movies, animated cartoons, music, literature, art, history and pulp fiction all feature equally with no sense of rank or hierarchy. Jason\u2019s puckish, egalitarian mixing & matching of inspirational sources always and inevitably produces picture-treatises well worth a reader\u2019s time. Over a succession of tales he has built and re-employed a repertory company of stock characters to explore deceptively simplistic milieux based on classic archetypes distilled from movies, childhood yarns, 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, thick outlines dominating settings of seductive monochrome simplicity augmented by a beguiling palette of stark pastels and muted primary colours.<\/p>\n

A master of short-form illustrated tales, many Jason yarns have been released as snappy little albums before later inclusion in longer anthology collections. The majority of tales brim with bleak isolation, swamped by a signature surreality even in the most comedic of moments. They are largely populated with cinematically-inspired, darkly comic, charmingly macabre animal people ruminating on inescapable concerns whilst re-enacting bizarrely cast, bestial movie tributes. That\u2019s a style that has never been more apropos than right here, as the more modern Art Forms bow before the onslaught and tirade of organised anti-art philosophers, socially intellectual terrorists, wandering pop stars and a lost Vulcan…<\/p>\n

Here the auteur returns to short individual pieces – or are they? – and fondly dabbles with words, terms and aural meanings whilst opening with an understandable failure to communicate over a meal in \u2018Woman, Man, Bird\u2019 <\/em>before noted cerebral French auteur\/filmmaker and playfully adrift word-&-meaning warper Georges Perec<\/em> is repositioned as a hardboiled gumshoe searching for a missing woman in a yarn laced with omissions, mis-hearings and misapprehensions. Nevertheless, if you\u2019re looking for a truth – any truth – \u2018Perec PI\u2019<\/em> is on the case…
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\nA rapid pictorial transit to a peregrination through a typical life is recalled at full pelt in \u2018I Remember\u2019 <\/em>after which \u2018Vampyros Dyslexicoa\u2019<\/em> dips deep into literary hinterlands in a pastiche\/homage to Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu\u2019s 1872 Gothic novella Carmilla<\/strong>. However the sordid obsessions of sapphic vampire Mircalla<\/em> are only the entr\u00e9e to wilder scriptorial regions and a nasty case of creative anachronism as \u2018Seal VII\u2019 <\/em>takes us deep into modern \u201cScandi\u201d folklore when a certain Knight and Death meet up for a game in Sweden in 1357 and don\u2019t really cotton to the notion of chess for souls…<\/p>\n

The scenes shifts to Prague in 1919 where a certain agent of the crown abruptly quits his job and is renditioned to a strange, picturesque high-tech surveillance Village where he has to wear a blazer as \u2018The Prisoner in the Castle\u2019<\/em> prior to popping back to St Peterburg in 1865 to gorily relive the trials and tribulations of Great Russian Literature at first hand via some eccentric \u2018Crime and Punishment\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

As much as Jason has played with visual meaning and manipulated derived imagery-context in his past forays, the later relater is here gripped by the confusing potentials of words and verbal meanings. Such facile surface fascinations are apparent during Leopold Bloom<\/em>\u2019s rather violent visit with the absolute master of \u201cwhat did that mean\u201d Dublin in June offers a walk with James Joyce, a leprechaun, Stephen Dedalus<\/em> and Molly<\/em> as we ponder stuff and not-nonsense in \u2018Ulysses\u2019<\/em>. Then \u2018Ionesco\u2019<\/em> introduces random judgement to the final days of avant-garde playwright Eug\u00e8ne Ionesco, as a parade of bizarre celebrities and notables eulogise or defame him before he goes…
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\nSlipping into a partial colour palette (yellow, if you care), \u2018What Rhymes with Giallo?\u2019 <\/em>uses rhyming couplets to detail a sordid stabbing spree before resuming monochromatic mode as the tense future proves too much for one scientific stoic. Stress compels Mr Spock<\/em> to desert the Enterprise and migrate to Montparnasse, Paris in \u2018The City of Light, Forever\u2019<\/em>. It\u2019s 1925 and he finds contentment as a minor Japanese painter (of cats) until Captain Kirk<\/em> comes looking for him. If you follow Jason, this is where you start to realise that a lot of his work overlaps and intercepts itself in the strangest places…<\/p>\n

Adding red and blue to black & white, \u2018Who Will Kill the Spider?\u2019<\/em> is a classic child\u2019s nightmare of terror and confusion as Dad<\/em> uses escalating tools and allies to deal with a bug in the bedroom who just won\u2019t quit, after which words literally fail us in \u2018One Million and One Years B.C.\u2019<\/em>: a silent science spoof of dinosaurs, cave-folk, time-travelling soldiers and stupid assumptions which leads into tribute diptych \u2018EC Come…\u2019<\/em> (a bloody tale of domestic ghouls and zombies) and \u2018…EC Go\u2019 <\/em>(pointed satire of the comic company\u2019s sublime Ray Bradbury adaptations of interplanetary First Contacts).
\n\"\"
\nThen inevitably it devolves into a spoofing shot at the Sci Fi Fifties care of Curt Siodmak via Ed Wood in alien invasion \u2018From Outer Space\u2019 <\/em>before \u2018Etc.\u2019 <\/em>stages a celebrity-stacked movement-moment that begins in London circa 1972 as immortal musketeer Athos<\/em> meets David Bowie<\/em> meets a mummy meets Elvis<\/em> meets Moses<\/em> meets Sinatra <\/em>meets Van Gogh<\/em> meets Frank Zappa<\/em> meets Death ad infinitum for a miasmic, abstractly construed big finish…<\/p>\n

Visually mesmerising, this cunningly concocted Dadaist picture salad conceals underlying connections you really have to stay untuned for, referring relentlessly to modern icons and ancient shibboleths in equal measure, and perpetually sampling the feeling and furniture of war films, scary stories, true romances gone bad, Monty Python<\/strong>, Star Trek<\/strong>, a million movies, books, tunes and comics and even his own burgeoning \u201cJason-verse\u201d. Upside Dawn<\/strong> absolutely should not be your first dip into his works, but don\u2019t let that stop you from getting them all and getting all caught up…
\nAll characters, stories, artwork and translation \u00a9 2022 Jason.
\nThis edition of Upside Dawn \u00a9 2022 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1892 Scots artist and future Charlie Chaplin<\/em> comics illustrator Wally Roberson<\/strong> was born, followed in 1912 by John Liney<\/strong> (who limned the Henry<\/strong> strip), and in 1917, Hal Seeger<\/strong> who wrote & drew Betty Boop<\/strong> and later Leave it to Binky<\/strong>. In 1925 eventual East German cartoonist Hannes Hegen<\/strong> (Mosaik<\/em><\/strong>) arrived, with US letterer-to be Stan Starkman<\/strong> (Batman<\/strong>, Doom Patrol<\/strong>, Metamorpho<\/strong>) coming along in 1927. 3D comics guy Ray Zone<\/strong> was born in 1947, the same day and year that we lost the astounding Reg Perrott<\/strong>, artist on Roly and Poly the Two Bear Cubs<\/em>, Land of the Lost People<\/em>, Whirling Around the World<\/em>, Wheels of Fortune<\/em>, Red Ryder<\/strong>, The Young Explorers<\/em>, The Golden Arrow<\/em>, Golden Eagle<\/em>, Sons of the Sword<\/em> and more, as well as becoming producer\/studio manager of UK mainstay Mickey<\/strong> Mouse Weekly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 1952 H\u00e4gar the Horrible<\/strong> artist Chris Browne<\/strong> was born, as was Chester Brown<\/strong> (Yummy Fur<\/em>, Louis Riel<\/em>) in 1960 and John Arne S\u00e6ter\u00f8y<\/strong>\/Jason<\/em><\/strong> in 1965.<\/p>\n

This date in 1964 Malcom Judge<\/strong>\u2019s Billy Whizz<\/em> first hurtled into the hearts of Beano<\/strong> readers, and in 2012 marked the passing of comic book workhorse Ernie Chan<\/strong> (Conan<\/strong>, Batman<\/strong>, Dracula Kull<\/strong>, The Hulk<\/strong>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jason (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-68396-652-4 (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 by enigmatic, utilitarian nom de plume Jason. The shy & retiring auteur first took the path to cartoon superstardom in 1995, once debut graphic … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Upside Dawn”<\/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":[262,113,75,418,290,239,102,122,66,125,405,105,328,148,111,107,169,30,93,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropomorphic","category-comedy","category-crime-comics","category-detective-stories","category-dinosaurs","category-drama","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-horror-stories","category-humour","category-jason","category-mature-reading","category-music","category-romance","category-satirepolitics","category-science-fiction","category-spy-stories","category-star-trek","category-war-stories","category-westerns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-9eJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35509","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=35509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35515,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35509\/revisions\/35515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}