Employee Picks: Almost Silent by Jason

The comics of Norwegian creator Jason have won numerous awards and been published in several languages.  Lucky for you one of those languages is English, via Fantagraphics Books- his stories and strips are powerfully minimalist, by turns hilarious and poignant.  A good place for the budding Jason fan to start is the recent hardcover Almost Silent.

Almost Silent contains four previously printed works: short stories Tell Me Something, You Can't Get There From Here, and The Living and the Dead, and gag collection Meow, Baby!  We follow a diverse cast of movie monsters, aliens, cavemen, and anthropomorphic characters through their humdrum daily lives, as well as more thrilling situations (like a zombie apocalypse).  This weird world draws from old monster movies, slapstick cartoons, and art house noir; it's really solid joke-making and storytelling, with the added goofiness of all the deadpan animal-people.  Some of them even have pets of their own, it's crazy. 

I'm always making the customers jump by laughing out loud at the latest Jason book, and can't recommend them enough.  Be warned, though- despite the funny animal art, this humor tends to skew adultwards, with occasional nudity and drug use, so tell the kids they can have it when they're older.  Check it out!

-Liz