Jason has produced another winner for Fantagraphics.

The Norwegian writer and artist -- who, like Madonna, Cher, Bert and Ernie, goes by a single name -- supplies a bittersweet tale about being in the wrong place, making the wrong turn and being mistaken for the wrong man. Sure, it's in Jason's signature style, wherein all of his characters are anthropomorphic animals, but that doesn't lessen the impact of the price Alex (and his friend Claude) must pay for looking through the wrong window at precisely the wrong time.

Alex is at the end of a month-long sulk after losing his girlfriend -- Claire or Julie, we're not sure which -- when Claude asks him to water his plants while he's out of town. Alex thinks nothing of it when he sees a man in a window across the street from Claude's apartment, but the man doesn't want any witnesses. So the stranger lies in wait and kills Claude when he returns, then frames Alex for the murder. Now Alex is on the run, and only the kindness of shopkeeper Geraldine keeps him beyond the reach of the law.

It's not a straightforward romance by any stretch, and yet a certain tenderness develops between Alex, Geraldine and Geraldine's young daughter. But the police haven't given up on Alex, and the stranger in the window is on his trail, too.

Jason's art is sparing of detail -- his characters' large, oval eyes lack even pupils -- but it communicates a full message regardless. Emotions are clear through a character's posture, the tilt of a head, a closeup of the lines above the eyes. Dialogue is also sparse at times, and yet the powerful story flows without a bump or hesitation.

Sometimes, bad things happen to good people, and justice is not a guarantee. This story -- Jason's first full-color graphic novel -- will tear a little at your heart.

- Rambles
written by Tom Knapp
published 4 June 2005