The Living and the Dead

Jason
The Living and the Dead

Fantagraphics, 2006

In this novel (2006) a native of Norway the cartoonist Jason does not change itself not a bit: the hero again is a loser; a quiet life in the novel is broken by otherworldly forces, again; the dream of a not available woman; again all the people are animals-like. But this time - and this is for the first time - the usual ingredients, put together as if in the same proportions, do not formed into something that can give pleasure to the reader.

Sad dishwasher from one of cafe, whole life of his stretches from change to change, each time returning home, dreams of a thin prostitute, but only a thick one flirts with him: he does not have enough money for a thin. The girl has not a too sweet life: her pimp beats her, and at home every day a cold bed waits for her. It is obvious, they should finally fall in love with each other, and zombies suddenly began to climb out of their graves help the man and the girl with that.

Besides this romantic story, there are no more in this book. The novel ends so fast (only 50 pages) that there is no question of any details in person relationships. The appearance of zombies is not given any more or less intelligible explanation, so this is just a pretext to bring the single characters together. The final becomes apparent about to the 20th page, which is quite strange, considering how Jason in his other works made a plot more complicated closer to the end. Nothing of the kind: even heroes have no charming in this graphic novel.

It's quite sad, but probably true: even the most talented authors should have sometime failures. This is such a case.