Meow, Baby!

The book is a lot thicker than Jason's books, being the size of about 3 of his usual sized books combined. It's a shame his publishers have temporarily stopped printing copies but I suspect as with the recent repub of Sshhhh! that it won't be long before we see this as well as "Tell Me Something" and "The Iron Wagon" being reissued. Unlike a number of Jason's other books, this isn't a 48 page comics novella but rather an assortment of 1 or 2 page stories involving aliens, cavemen, Elvis impersonators, mummies, zombies, skeletons, and vampires to name a few. The tone is very light hearted and funny with running gags involving the Caveman whacking women over the head with a club and dragging them back to his cave, the Vampire looking for a change to his routine, the Alien abducting people, and the Zombie couple eating different people. Though it has no overall narrative it shows Jason's superb ability at telling a story within a few panels without words. Also included is a short story involving mummies.

I'll have to say that this artist has a way with the graphic art form that I feel few others have demontrated thus far in the genre. The sincerity conveyed through simplicity in order to portray a wonderful series of elements that characterise the human condition is refreshing...not to mention that zombies, mummies and monsters in general NEED to be in our lives!

The twisted mind of Scandinavian writer and artist Jason is difficult to fathom. My first exposure to his work was the haunting "Hey, Wait...," a tragic story of a single moment that changed everything. Next was "Why Are You Doing This," in which a pivotal moment in one person's life had disastrous results. Bear in mind that Jason's characters are mostly anthropomorphic animals that, in another setting, would be cute and comical. In these books, however, they are just average people caught during a dark turn of the wheel. "Meow, Baby!" evinces Jason's more light-hearted and comical frames. The book collects a series of short vignettes -- ranging from a few panels to a few pages -- in which a variety of characters (skeletons, zombies, mummies and vampires, Van Helsing, Elvis, aliens, cavemen, Godzilla, the Terminator and more -- all, of course, drawn in cuddly anthropomorphic style) live out their lives. This book doesn't induce belly-busting laughter. It evokes smiles, chuckles and the occasional wince -- not just for the humor, but often for the sheer unexpectedness of the directions Jason takes his characters. After the wrenching sadness of his earlier books, "Meow, Baby!" is a refreshing demonstration of Jason's versatility. I already knew he had depth; it's nice to know he has breadth as well. by Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor