Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound and James Joyce are hard at work at their craft in 1920s Paris. But, as talented Norwegian writer and artist Jason tells it, these luminaries of the literary field were not writers at all, but cartoonists -- and, damn, they aren't having any easy time meeting deadlines and making cash. Fitzgerald has it particularly hard, as wife Zelda keeps complaining about the lack of both funds and excitement.

So everyone seems fairly unsurprised, even resigned, when Hemingway suggests a daring robbery to set them all back in a comfortable style.

But the fairly simple plan goes awry from the start because Zelda, who wrung the plan from her weak-willed husband, decides to get her lover involved and get the loot for herself. Before you can say "Kilimanjaro," the plan begins to unravel and people are getting shot.

Jason is an endlessly creative and expressive writer and artist whose anthropomorphic stories draw you into his skewed world view. Using subdued colors and limited detail, he tells his story from several viewpoints before resolving the questions of who did what to whom, who got shot and who got away with the money.

I love Jason's sparse, self-contained stories. I wish there were more writers and artists out there with his gift for economical presentation. I wish more creators would develop his sense of soul. That said, readers who aren't already sold on Jason's work will likely be chased away by the $12.95 price tag; at 46 pages, the book seems overpriced despite its rich, sturdy construction.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
30 December 2006