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A review by levitybooks
If You Steal by Jason
3.0
Jason's weakest collection: too inconsistent to be as good as 'Almost Silent', clearly worse than 'Low Moon', and far from the brilliance of 'What I Did'.
In comparison to his individually published stories, this is about as good as 'Athos in America' and 'The Last Musketeer', but far worse than others like 'Why Are You Doing This', 'Hey Wait', and 'The Left Bank Gang'...
The general weakness is that many of these stories are jokes based on references to modern history and pop culture that are underdeveloped, which he clearly knows how to do well given how good 'I Killed Adolf Hitler' is.
Here's a run down:
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If You Steal - 4/5
Best, as with more work this could have been a good single issue story. Too complex to be so condensed!
Karma Chameleon - 4/5
One of the funniest Jason comics I can remember.
Waiting for Bardot - 2/5
Missing the tension between those waiting as in Waiting for Godot, and the joke was too hurried.
Lorena Valazquez - 3/5
Funny message, but did we need that much fighting?!
New Face - 3/5
This absolutely feels like a B-side of If You Steal, taking an alternative approach to unreliable narration. It fails to connect emotionally though.
Moondance - n/a
Covers for graphic novels, serves as an intermission.
Night of the Vampire Hunter - 2/5
Having the heart in a doll is probably a reference I didn't get, but other than that nothing to see here.
Polly Wants A Cracker - 3/5
Adding a monobrow and making the bird a parrot didn't make Polly Wants a Cracker a meaningful or obvious reference to Frida Kahlo. The story was good anyway!
The Thrill is Gone - 2/5
Implying that this Chet Baker song is about when he got beaten up for heroin is interesting, but making him play the trumpet after it when in reality he couldn't play the trumpet any more didn't make sense. The story made no sense without the reference.
Ask Not - 2/5
Making the assassination of JFK by time travelling lizard people may have been interesting had it not been so long and relying so much on readers knowing events and people.
Nothing - 4/5
Third best in the collection, a harrowing simulation of late stage dementia, definitely should have been used for a bigger story!
---------
In comparison to his individually published stories, this is about as good as 'Athos in America' and 'The Last Musketeer', but far worse than others like 'Why Are You Doing This', 'Hey Wait', and 'The Left Bank Gang'...
The general weakness is that many of these stories are jokes based on references to modern history and pop culture that are underdeveloped, which he clearly knows how to do well given how good 'I Killed Adolf Hitler' is.
Here's a run down:
-------
If You Steal - 4/5
Best, as with more work this could have been a good single issue story. Too complex to be so condensed!
Karma Chameleon - 4/5
One of the funniest Jason comics I can remember.
Waiting for Bardot - 2/5
Missing the tension between those waiting as in Waiting for Godot, and the joke was too hurried.
Lorena Valazquez - 3/5
Funny message, but did we need that much fighting?!
New Face - 3/5
This absolutely feels like a B-side of If You Steal, taking an alternative approach to unreliable narration. It fails to connect emotionally though.
Moondance - n/a
Covers for graphic novels, serves as an intermission.
Night of the Vampire Hunter - 2/5
Having the heart in a doll is probably a reference I didn't get, but other than that nothing to see here.
Polly Wants A Cracker - 3/5
Adding a monobrow and making the bird a parrot didn't make Polly Wants a Cracker a meaningful or obvious reference to Frida Kahlo. The story was good anyway!
The Thrill is Gone - 2/5
Implying that this Chet Baker song is about when he got beaten up for heroin is interesting, but making him play the trumpet after it when in reality he couldn't play the trumpet any more didn't make sense. The story made no sense without the reference.
Ask Not - 2/5
Making the assassination of JFK by time travelling lizard people may have been interesting had it not been so long and relying so much on readers knowing events and people.
Nothing - 4/5
Third best in the collection, a harrowing simulation of late stage dementia, definitely should have been used for a bigger story!
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