Scan barcode
bent's review against another edition
5.0
This was the best graphic novel I've ever read! I loved this story. I highly recommend it to anyone.
thebobsphere's review
3.0
I read Jar of Fools five years ago and I have absolutely no recollection of it, which means that a re-read was necessary.
In a way I can see why I don’t have a strong recollection of this graphic novel, the art is okish, the plot is technically interesting but I felt that it’s an idea which could have been pushed further and after reading the book, I kinda shrugged my shoulders and thought it was an decent read but nothing else.
The plot focuses on a washed out magician who is desperately trying to increase hi audience, however his brother has committed suicide and his ex girlfriend has stopped contacting him and he’s asking help from his mentor, who escapes his retirement home and has orderlies hunting from him.
One day he meets a con man and his daughter and is blackmailed into teaching the daughter magic tricks so that she joins him in swindling people.
Jar of Fools overdoses on pathos and melodrama and sometimes that makes me not care about the characters, which was happening. Also I kind of wanted the story to finish as I had enough of the drama. In fact this sound clip kept going on in my head while reading Jar of Fools.
As said on the whole this comic is ok but it’s rather something one should borrow rather than buy.
In a way I can see why I don’t have a strong recollection of this graphic novel, the art is okish, the plot is technically interesting but I felt that it’s an idea which could have been pushed further and after reading the book, I kinda shrugged my shoulders and thought it was an decent read but nothing else.
The plot focuses on a washed out magician who is desperately trying to increase hi audience, however his brother has committed suicide and his ex girlfriend has stopped contacting him and he’s asking help from his mentor, who escapes his retirement home and has orderlies hunting from him.
One day he meets a con man and his daughter and is blackmailed into teaching the daughter magic tricks so that she joins him in swindling people.
Jar of Fools overdoses on pathos and melodrama and sometimes that makes me not care about the characters, which was happening. Also I kind of wanted the story to finish as I had enough of the drama. In fact this sound clip kept going on in my head while reading Jar of Fools.
As said on the whole this comic is ok but it’s rather something one should borrow rather than buy.
gengelcox's review against another edition
2.0
The artistic influences of Jason Lutes' "picture novel," Jar of Fools, are fairly easy to spot. The drawing style is European, with the clean lines of [a:Herge|2610729|Herge (Seud. De Georges Remy)|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] of Tintin fame, while the storyline is contemporary Americana of such short story writers as [a:Raymond Carver|7363|Raymond Carver|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1201118985p2/7363.jpg]. But Lutes is good enough, and his story strong enough, that it transcends being merely a reflection of his study, and the combination of the disparete pair make this graphic novel something unusual among the others on the shelf.
The story is about a troubled young man whose brother was an escape-artist who failed a straitjacket-river trick, whose romance has failed, and whose stage magician mentor is further slipping into Alzheimer's daily. At the same time, his ex-girlfriend is attempting to put her life together. When these lives intersect with a young girl and her con-artist father, magic happens--but not the fantastic type, just the magic of people finally connecting to life.
I hate to simply keep comparing it to other works, but sometimes the mind just works that way. With its magician characters and realistic depiction of street life, it recalled for me [a:Nicholas Christopher|9334|Nicholas Christopher|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s [b:Veronica|1829005|Veronica|Nicholas Christopher|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|1828810] much more than any previous graphic novel. And while the story was interesting and the art entirely appropriate, the sum of it all still left me with a slightly vauge dissatisfaction, likely due to the somewhat downer ending with its open-ended quality (again, reminiscent of modern short stories, where the end is as much a beginning as anything). It's not going to appeal to action-adventure readers at all, but if you liked [a:Dan Clowes|126144|Dan Clowes|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s [b:Ghost World|991027|Ghost World The Special Edition|Dan Clowes|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1232859774s/991027.jpg|43003] or [a:Will Eisner|1642|Will Eisner|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1202618782p2/1642.jpg]'s [b:"A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories|258227|"A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories|Will Eisner|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|250281], you might enjoy this one.
The story is about a troubled young man whose brother was an escape-artist who failed a straitjacket-river trick, whose romance has failed, and whose stage magician mentor is further slipping into Alzheimer's daily. At the same time, his ex-girlfriend is attempting to put her life together. When these lives intersect with a young girl and her con-artist father, magic happens--but not the fantastic type, just the magic of people finally connecting to life.
I hate to simply keep comparing it to other works, but sometimes the mind just works that way. With its magician characters and realistic depiction of street life, it recalled for me [a:Nicholas Christopher|9334|Nicholas Christopher|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s [b:Veronica|1829005|Veronica|Nicholas Christopher|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|1828810] much more than any previous graphic novel. And while the story was interesting and the art entirely appropriate, the sum of it all still left me with a slightly vauge dissatisfaction, likely due to the somewhat downer ending with its open-ended quality (again, reminiscent of modern short stories, where the end is as much a beginning as anything). It's not going to appeal to action-adventure readers at all, but if you liked [a:Dan Clowes|126144|Dan Clowes|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s [b:Ghost World|991027|Ghost World The Special Edition|Dan Clowes|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1232859774s/991027.jpg|43003] or [a:Will Eisner|1642|Will Eisner|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1202618782p2/1642.jpg]'s [b:"A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories|258227|"A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories|Will Eisner|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|250281], you might enjoy this one.
werds's review against another edition
4.0
https://recenseernogeenkeer.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/jar-of-fools/
More...