The Left Bank Gang

    (Fantagraphics, 2006)
™ and © Fantagraphics Books, Inc.

Norwegian artist Jason probably has the market cornered on gritty noir tales told about fatally vulnerable, sensitive people, but just to make sure, he makes a signature style of minimalized expressions, frequently neutral faces, and, oh yes, animal protagonists. It tends to work, and continues to do so here, where the heroes of Western Literature are still struggling in 1920s Paris, though they happen to be comic strip cartoonists. It’s amusing how well the simple geometry of his clean-line style can align to make accurate, animal portraits of writers like James Joyce or F. Scott Fitzgerald. To alleviate their poverty, Ernest Hemingway concocts a heist scheme, but there’s a traitor(s) in the group adding a classic crime cross and double, triple, quadruplecross. The ending is perfectly Jason, with a lone, world-weary character wearily returning to the respite of simple, human company in the wake of an existentialist conflict.

— Brendan McGinley
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#1

June, 2006
Cover Price: $12.95
1 copy available for $10.50 		JasonJason