Death in Trieste

Jason

Book cover for Death in Trieste
Image for variant 9798875001253
Book cover for Death in Trieste
Image for variant 9798875001253

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

Jason

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Description

A Library Journal Best Book of 2025

The cartoonist known as Jason returns with a collection of three short graphic stories, connected by an absurdist thread, showcasing his idiosyncratic cultural obsessions, clear line style, and deadpan humor.

The title story, "Death in Trieste," sets the scene in 1920s Berlin, a bustling cultural hotspot in the shadow of the coming Nazism. Here, a host of unlikely characters -- time-travelling David Bowie, Rasputin, Nosferatu, Marlene Dietrich, and more -- are all connected by a group of Dadaists who perform the art of rationality through madness. In "The Magritte Affair," a wisecracking pair of detectives must crack a case involving art forgeries, masked men, and mysterious disappearances -- all linked to the surrealist world of the famous Belgian painter. Finally, in "Sweet Dreams," Jason reimagines the New Wave artists of the 1980s as X-Men-esque superheroes. While this supergroup easily dispatches such supernatural threats as living mummies, animated suits of armor, and rampaging golems, they soon face their biggest challenge yet, as a giant meteorite hurtles toward the Earth.

Critical Reviews

Any new work from Norwegian cartoonist Jason is worthy of a comics fan's full attention.-- "The A.V. Club"

Jason's subdued take on Hergé's clear-line illustration style is a reliable delight.-- "Publishers Weekly"

These aren't stories to read because you want to read about characters and their feelings; they're stories that you read because you have the same need to read them that Jason has to draw them-- that almost primal need to be living in the world of art and pure story-- "From Cover To Cover"

Jason is one of those cartoonists that feels like pure distilled cartooning. His work is minimal in a way that focuses on the essentials that keep things identifiable and works within the comic format.--Inkstuds

His strongest work in years and a great introduction to Jason's twists of pop culture.-- "The Book Beat"

Jason's delight in mixing high and low art never fails to amuse.-- "High Low Comics"

This perfectly encapsulates the ethos of utilizing the funny animal format to tell melancholic stories about getting old and living in a collapsing, ever changing world. An absurd cosmos that refuses explanation, save for unsatisfying ones. And, you know, it's absolutely delightful in doing so.-- "The Beat"

Filled with art history and pop culture obsession, Death in Trieste masterfully blends comic strip hijinks and set with a greater sense of existential wonder.-- "AIPT"

You'll see anthropomorphic characters, clean lines, and then kind of a deadpan, dry-wit humor. Those are kind of the three aspects that you get with a Jason comic book that I love.-- "Taylor Talks Comics"

Everything here is marvelously surreal and silly, with much superhero-comics-style fighting ("BAM") and the occasional metafictional touch, as when one character in "The Magritte Affair" describes another as "the hat seller from page 14, panel 2!-- "Shelf Awareness"

There's nothing quite like a Jason story: you may not understand where it's going, but it's always a fun trip. Here he's unleashed with tales encompassing Dadism, surrealist riffs related to the artworks of Magritte, and '80s musicians reimagined as superheroes.-- "Cinema Sentries"

Publishing Information

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Pub date: 2025-09-16
Length: 176 pages

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