Tell Me Something [Paperback]

Jason (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2004

A blank-eyed, silent meditation on young love thwarted and re-kindled. If we can have graphic novels, we can surely have graphic novellas, and this latest book from the acclaimed Norwegian cartoonist Jason is a prime example of a tight, self-contained volume that tells one complete, satisfying story in a compact 48 pages. Tell Me Something picks up the stylized anthropomorphic characters of Jason's earlier works (Hey, Wait... and The Iron Wagon), as well as the challenge of all-pantomime (or almost) comics of Sshhhh! to weave a yarn of young love thwarted and re-kindled. Switching smoothly between two time periods, alternating moments of tenderness and sadness with slapstick and irony, Tell Me Something is a virtuoso technical achievement as well as a funny and sad tale of romance and treachery. New readers will find themselves astonished at how deeply they come to identify with Jason's stylized, blank-eyed menagerie of characters, while those who shed a tear at Hey, Wait... will be somewhat prepared for the emotional wallops contained in this slender but perfect book in which every single line counts, and words are not needed.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Jason draws figures as long, lean, and nearly expressionless as the stereotypes of Scandinavians would have them be. To magnify the characters' psychological opacity, they have dogs' and birds' heads. Jason renders their stories near-wordlessly, in rigorously square frames, almost always from a perpendicular perspective (no oblique angles for him), and in black and white, sparingly complemented, if at all, by subdued colors. Done exclusively in black and white, Tell Me Something is a story, framed by two petty crimes, of love found, lost, found again, and then come to naught. The narrative flashes forward and backward; the forward panels are set against a white surround, the backward against a black one. But that simple device--white equals now, black equals the past--is about the only interpretive aid Jason provides. One must really see each panel to get what's going on and grasp nuances. Some may lack the patience and concentration the book demands, but those who don't may return to it repeatedly, as to a favorite film, to see what they have previously missed. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

[...] Done exclusively in black and white, Tell Me Something is a story, framed by two petty crimes, of love found, lost, found again, and then come to naught...One must really see each panel to get what's going on and grasp nuances. Some may lack the patience and concentration the book demands, but those who don't may return to it repeatedly, as to a favorite film, to see what they have previously missed.

(Ray Olson - Booklist )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (February 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560975660
• ISBN-13: 978-1560975663
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,973,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still a mack..., May 4, 2004

By 

Leroy Douresseaux (Eunice, LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tell Me Something (Paperback)

I really didn't know what to expect from this book other than that I would probably like it as I have Jason's other books. What surprised me is how Jason continues to successfully use these odd, "silent" comics to tell a fully realized story. Could he be the ultimate graphic artist? He's the cartoonist who is a storyteller in a universal language. Just follow the pictures in sequence and you're "reading" the story; with barely more than a few written words, you get it. Jason leaves me speechless!!!