For outsiders to the stoic animal-headed Scandinavian master of silent comics, this volume is a must. Included are the individual graphic novels "Emily Says Hello", "Low Moon", "&", "Proto Film Noir", and "You are Here", each vastly different but containing Jason's distinct motifs (repressed emotion, nostalgia, etc..) This is a great addition to any comic book library, an invitation to the depressing Mythos of Jason. Highly recommended. "Low Moon" shows two things about Jason's success - firstly that he's getting blurbs from writers like Glen David Gold on the back cover, and secondly that this is his first hardback edition with colour. It's a little larger than the average paperback and is Jason's longest work yet. It's made up of five short stories: Emily Says Hello, Low Moon, &, Proto Film Noir, and You Are Here. Emily Says Hello is about a man killing people in exchange for sexual favours from a woman. He records their last moments on a dictaphone, says "Emily Says Hello" and then shoots them. He plays this to the woman who takes the photograph of the dead person, hangs it on the wall and crosses out the picture, then goes on to pay her part of the deal to the killer. Low Moon is a wild west story with a difference. Instead of shootouts they have chess matches. Horses are no longer around having been replaced with old timey big wheel-small wheel bikes, and cowboys talk on cell phones. A bad guy comes to town to challenge the sheriff to a chess match at dawn. & follows two separate story lines. A man trying to raise money to pay for a life saving operation for his mother and a man who is trying to woo a woman to marry him. Proto Film Noir follows a similar storyline to "The Postman Always Rings Twice" only the protagonists are cavemen. Also when the couple try to murder the wife's husband he reappears day after day. The final story is You Are Here where the wife is abducted by aliens and the husband spends twenty years building a spacecraft to go after her. His son, now a grown man, joins him and they set off to another planet to find the woman. The plotting and pacing are among Jason's strongest work. Each story is eminently readable and thoroughly engrossing. Emily Says Hello is the most memorable and interesting story with a haunting end and shows Jason can do drama wonderfully. Low Moon and Proto Film Noir are the humour stories while & and You Are Here contain the most pathos and sadness. The book is a gorgeous production and the stories are brilliant. I utterly loved it and honestly cannot see this artist ever writing a poor book. His sense of story is pitch perfect and his style is developing into a unique and original look. Where Herge is remembered for his drawing, so will Jason be remembered for his, and his wildly inventive stories. Really highly recommended both for fans of Jason and comics in general.
What do You think about Low Moon (2009)?
Genuinely funny and sometimes a bit touching, in an oddball kind of way. It's on my wishlist.
—ami
Short stories ripe with mordant wit. Sunday funnies for grown-ups.
—zizi2112
Hands down, the most hilarious Jason book I've read yet.
—nikern
Jason really is the most brilliant cartoonist around.
—popo21
