Jason's Lost Cat: A Lesser Work from a Superior Cartoonist

Loneliness in bright colors

I fondly remember the first book I read from Jason. It was in 2005 at the time when my interest in comics had started to fade. I went to the lesser of two comic book shops in Quebec City and was going to get yet another boring, tensionless, consequence-free, idiotic X-Men comic. I knew I had to read better stuff. I was a teenager back then and this was a time of personal growth for me. As much as I had enjoyed comics, I needed to see something, anything, better than the piles of crap pushed by the big companies. And I started browsing the small independent section of that store (one shelf) for anything of value, anything of importance. I found Hey, Wait..., by Norwegian cartoonist Jason. A 64-page graphic novel about loss, adulthood, loss of innocence and comics. It was minimalist and incredibly bold. It was what kickstarted my love of the medium. I began obsessing over the book, talking about it to everyone I knew. First the story struck me, then the structure of the story, then the layout, the use of space, the line work. It had a huge impact on me. I strongly believe that if you enjoy something, you can never be content with just having it, you have a burning desire to know all about it's inner workings; how it was made; by whom; and why and when; and how it relates to everything else you know. Hey, Wait... was the key to the comic book world I needed. It opened the door to better books and a greater appreciation of the art form. Years later, I still buy every book from Jason that comes out. It is a deeply personal experience for me, a sort of "going back to your roots" moment with every new page.

This is why I chose Lost Cat as the first Jason book I should talk about. Because Lost Cat, is a surprisingly disappointing read. Not content to simply have it on my shelf, I must channel this burning desire to look at it from multiple angles until I can decode it. Let's take a look at why this book in particular is such a letdown.

In Lost Cat, we follow Private Eye Dan Delon. As he finishes a very quiet day at work and heads home, he comes across a poster for a missing cat. As it turns out, the cat is nearby and he decides to return it to his owner. The owner, a woman around his age, answers the door and invites him in for a coffee. They sit and talk and this reveals their mutual sadness and desperation. In this moment, these two lost souls seem to find one another. They agree to meet again, leaving detective Delon enthusistically optimistic. Unfortunately, she never shows to their date, and worse yet, she has disappeared. Our detective investigates, and the woman remains very much in his thoughts. She becomes an echo; a vision of who he wishes she was. In his loneliness, he clings to to this woman, desperately so, as a way out of his misery. But loneliness follows him, and he cannot escape it. When our detective meets her again, it turns out she has a mysterious past and ulterior motives for being in the city. This revelation shatters his world. In the end, he'd rather fall into oblivion alone rather then face the flawed woman in front of him.

Jason developped a recognizable art style and it is in full force in this book. The characters are anthropomorphic animals. Dialog is sparse and used for dramatic or comedic effect. His style is minimalist, focusing on architecture, and small moments for the characters rather than the actions of the scenes. It works really well in this book as our detective is struggling with his loneliness. There are these long segments in which our protagonist stares at the void. He is alone in his apartment, he brushes his teeth, he sits and looks out the window. There aren`t many emotions or movement. It is slow moving and represents the dullness of everyday life and reflects on his state of mind really accurately. In most of his other books, the dialog is always used for a purpose, but in the case of Lost Cat, certain passages, mostly involving Detective Delon's parallel investigation, feel either redundant or unnecessary. This is one of the weaknesses of the book.

Why is this a lesser work? Because of it's inconsistency in storytelling. It feels as though the cartoonist had three separate ideas and tried to combine them all in Lost Cat. They feel disconnected. How about a detective who finds a lost cat? How about a H.G. Wells style Invasion of the planet by aliens? How about a detective on an investigation that goes sour? Th3se three main plots drive the book, but they don't mesh together well enough. The individual components taken on their own might work well, but they don't combine organically enough in the book. What we get in the end is a story about loneliness and trying to connect, desperately to anyone, or anything, no matter how deceitful. In this case, the woman turns out to be an alien and the vanguard for a global invasion. This big reveal doesn't feel earned, it just happens. I guess she is an alien? Thematically it fits, the woman disappeared and his world was destroyed, both mentally and physically. He always felt alienated and even though he has a chance to leave with her, she isn't who he wanted her to be. She's a lie and he cannot accept it. He'd rather be destroyed than be lied to. It should work, but it doesn't because this isn't a book about aliens, or destruction or lies. It's a book about loneliness and how difficult it is to find someone to be with. The two instances of foreshadowing feel tacked on as a last minute way to conclude the book. It robs the reader of the dramatic climax the book desperately needed.

Is it a bad book? No. Not by any stretch of the imagination. I think misguided may be more appropriate. Most of Jason's books have always integrated fantastical elements in their plots. It always seems to drive the story of our protagonist forward. Those elements are mostly integrated in the plot from the beginning. Frankenstein monster, time travel, pirates, zombie invasion, those are all included in the premise of the story and the characters transcend the basic premise of the genre. In The living and the Dead, a young man falls in love with a woman, but his efforts to court her are thwarted by the zombie apocalypse. When they are finally united, it feels earned, like the book was working towards it's goal the whole time. In Lost Cat, the sci-fi element feels like an afterthought. Almost like it was either forgotten on the first draft, or that it wasn't fitting properly in the story and was stapled on after the first draft. When we reach the end of the book, the pay off feels unearned. Thematically, it works, but narratively, it doesn't (if that makes any sense).

Yellow and Black

I rarely talk about the books themselves, the physical object. I will try to do so moving forward as, in some cases, it is important. Fantagraphics has done a tremendous job with this book. The hardcover format has a fantastic bright yellow cloth spine with bold black letters announcing the title. The primary colours on the front and back are black, white and some orange to add texture and depth to some images. The white font contrasts nicely with the black cover. The design of the cover is also great. It shows the detective opening the door and looking straight at the woman, but she is on the back cover. They are so close, yet worlds (or spines) apart. It also emphashizes the theme of loneliness as he cannot reach her. They are separated by an otherworldy yellow spine. It's a really nice looking book. Fantagraphics has been publishing them in this style for many years and it's absolutely gorgeous.

I wouldn't recommend the book to those who haven't read any other work by Jason. I Killed Adolf Hitler, Werewolf of Montpellier, You can't get here from there, and particularly, Hey, Wait... are all titles you should seek out first. If you've read some of his work before, you can find much to appreciate in Lost Cat, but remember that it may leave a sour taste. Jason is a true master of graphic storytelling, but this book is not his finest piece.

Finally, if you're interested at all, check out Jason's Blog Cats without Dogs. He posted as few process pieces around the time the book came out. Script and thumbnails, so go and take a look. Additionally, he has addressed some of the criticism he received from the book and answers some questions about Lost Cat

Dash Shaw's Doctors: Social Accountability and Depression

Out of control

What does it mean to be a doctor? And as a society, what do we expect from our physicians and specialists? A doctor is someone who practices medicine, helps to cure and treat the ailments, injuries or pains of his patients. As a society, we want them to be competent, pluripotential and for them to be able to respond to the healthcare needs of the community. If they are specialists (ranging from surgeons, pediatricians, neurologists or anything else), we expect them to be efficient, knowledgeable and excel in their functions. The last century has seen major changes and increasing demands on healthcare systems. We live longer and our health care needs have changed. We face challenges to improve quality of care; to be equitable and effective; and to provide care in various locations and conditions across the country without reducing the quality of care. This means that our doctors are required to deal with increasingly challenging environments than they were before. We need our doctors to be socially accountable. We need our doctors to provide quality health care to a diverse and under-served population. They need to be able to meet the numerous needs of various patients in this increasingly medically complex world. 

Dash Shaw's Doctors was a very interesting read for me. Improving medical education is what I do for a living so this tied my career and my hobby together quite nicely. One of the main struggles of the book is to balance the requirement to meet society's needs and being socially accountable while remaining loyal to your immediate environment. 

A team of Doctors operates clandestinely using a machine called the "Charon". It allows it's user to invade the brain of a dying patient minutes before dying as they are creating the afterlife they want, or feel they deserve in their final moment. While in the brain, they try to bring the person back to life, away from the light at the end of the tunnel, if you wish. We follow Dr. Tammy Cho (daughter of the inventor of the Charon) as she attempts and eventually succeeds at bringing a woman named Bell back to life  But bringing someone back doesn't mean that they are cured and all survivors suffer from severe depression after being reanimated. And how could you not? In a way, after seeing what is waiting for you on the other side, be it love or despair, you would know it to be eternal. Wouldn`t that be incredibly depressing no matter the outcome­? We read of Dr. Cho's struggles to reconcile her father's control over the machine and its use for profit as they embark on a dangerous operation. We also follow's Ms. Bell's attempt to recapture what she saw in the afterlife and her failure to live up to her final dream. 

The opposite of social accountability

One of the main struggles for Tammy is to find, not only meaning in what she does, but also how to make sure it benefits society. She is well aware of the potential benefit of the Charon and that it should be used more widely. She asks her father: "Why aren't we a charity?" Why aren't we helping out society? Why are we unaffordable? The search for profit might not be the only thing that matters she seems to say. She genuinely wants to help and provide better treatment to her patients. She knows of the severe depression her patients suffer after being revived (p.45). She knows that it should be part of their duties to help their patients deal with the trauma. What is the point of reviving someone if you know that, without a doubt, they won't be able to handle their return?

Her father, Dr. Cho also has a ludicrous number of misconducts that relates to his career. For him, being a doctor is a success in and of itself, and to be successful, you need money. He cannot consider that in a situation of need, he would be expected to help someone for free. He even let in to his friend that he wouldn't save him for free. When his friend Clark jokingly says "With you around, I don't have to worry about dying." Cho simply answers "Don't push your luck". He also measures his success in terms of how many patients he brought back from life, not their survival rate, which is abysmally low. When Miss Bell breaks his car window, he mumbles that "She broke the car she paid for. She's gonna die soon anyway". Reading this, I felt that he must have known that his conduct was severe malpractice. He operates clandestinely, without supervision of any kind and he constantly worries someone will tell on him. When his daughter asked him why they weren't a charity, he answered that "it wouldn't work. The Catholics would shut us down." I think he meant any sort of health care regulatory body would shut him down.

Trauma is also another recurring element of this book. For Tammy and her father, their trauma stems from the loss of the mother. She died during a robbery that went wrong. The killer was found and killed, but the wound never healed. She was the emotional core of the family and once gone, her family lost their happiness. Now the pain has hardened Dr. Cho, and only the pursuit of his work can soothe the pain. In a lot of ways, his personal life stopped when he lost her. For Miss Bell, the damage that came with her revival is unbearable. In her afterlife, she fell in love with the pool boy, a young man who loved her despite her age and fortune. He simply loved her for who she really was. The shock of coming back to life and losing that happiness is intolerable. The depression that sets in afterward is overwhelming and insurmountable. Those traumas define the characters and only the tragic circumstances at the end of the book will allow them to move on.

Depression is not only the plight of the survivor, it is also the plight of the living. Both Tammy and Will struggle with everyday life. The toll of working on the edge of the afterlife is particularly impactful for them. Tammy is constantly wondering whether she`s alive or not and checks regularly for sensations (like heat) that she wouldn't feel in the Charon. A constant reminder that she is still alive. She also struggles to reconcile the dichotomy of her work. She wonders whether she is ending up like her patient Ms  Bell, "Drifting through life, waiting to die" only to end up with delusional thoughts of self-importance to justify living through another without sinking deeper, "I'm like a magician Our work is going to be famous and studied for centuries". She's unable to make meaningful connections and spends her nights lost in the game "The Sims", where her avatar is a surgeon so she "can really be helping other sims". Will is not much better. He reflects on the Egyptians' view of the afterlife, struggles to find love and thinks dark thoughts about the inevitability of death and the collapse of civilization. "Eventually your consciousness sputters out. You dissipate. You fade to Black. Just like how eventually our whole world, every culture, will explode and we'll all just be fucking cosmic dust. We'll all dissipate. We'll all be nothing and everything. What's more spiritual than that?"

Dash Shaw also makes good use of color. Each page is of a single color and this adds depth to both the drawings and the tone of the story being told. This is also helped with the way that the story is told: all through vignettes of 1 to 2 pages. The color helps convey information on feelings and the tone for each page., The effect works much better here than in his previous work "New Jobs", The goal was the same in both books, but the effect was different due to the length and size of the page. "New jobs" was a single panel per page, and a small page at that. In Doctors, the story is displayed on multiple panels and it allows for the feelings to be conveyed more effectively. The color permeates the narrative of the page, creating feelings of melancholia, nostalgia, dread or light-hearted moments.

Dash Shaw created a remarkable book that is relevant to modern issues in medicine. It addresses mortality, spirituality and depression in a colorful package. I'd highly recommend this to anyone regardless of your interest in health care. 

Dash Shaw's Cosplayers - Connection through Deception

Impersonating dishonesty

I have to confess that I love reading books about sad people. More accurately, I love reading stories about miserable, mediocre people. The sadder they are, the more I like it. As long as they are actual characters and not just proxy for horrible misery and gloom. Think about Jimmy Corrigan, the smartest kid on earth. He is a sad, weak, middle-aged man whose melancholy and grief is a product of both his personality and his environment. He is caught in this wheel of unhappiness with endless questions about the meaning of his life, which he eventually tries to resolve. It makes for a fantastic read. He is a fully formed pathetic character and I loved him for it.

Annie the Cosplayer and her nameless friend, which I will refer to as "the photographer" for lack of an actual name (though she is apparently called Verti, according to Fantagraphics), are just as sad and miserable as one could hope for. Both are alone, longing to connect with someone. Their meeting and its connection to cosplaying proves key to understanding their relationship. They first meet at Otakon while Annie is cosplaying as Sailor Venus from the manga Sailor Moon. Cosplay is more than just about the costume. One also adopts the maneurisms, speech patterns, expressions and looks of the subject. It is about becoming the character completely. The cosplayer transforms oneself; acting and behaving like the character they are impersonating. Its obvious that someone dressed as Gambit or Magneto is not truly that fictional character, but it is deceitful nonetheless. This dishonesty permeates the entire book and their entire friendship. It is on nearly every page. Annie even carries a green screen in her own home. Her online interactions are always conducted under a false name (orlyman, lazymercenary, etc.). Special effects are even performed with a hidden camera `spy film`. The entire basis of their relationships is a lie.

The photographer is fascinated by Annie and they become friends, although it seems quite one-sided. Annie is not herself in their first meeting. She is Sailor Venus, played by Annie. She doesn`t just lie to others, but she is constantly playing a role with herself as well. She wants to be an actor and is extroverted when she is cosplaying, yet she is naturally shy and insecure. She displays mean characteristics and completely lacks empathy. The photographer is not any better; she longs for a deeper connection to someone and is willing to trade the truth for it. She maintains their deception until the end; the deception being that what they have is a friendship, and that they are making a film. It is through their deceptions of one another and the rest of the world that they are actually able to connect to each other. "You might see one of us and think we're delivering your mail, or waiting on your table, but we're actually acting and we've given you a bit part". But their friendship crumbles when one of them realizes that her false life leaves her feeling empty. The photographer meets a boy and wishes to form an honest connection with him. Annie discourages her, but she tries anyway. She lies, but it rings false. She convinces the boy with her lies, but she can't convince herself anymore. She is not Scarlet Witch, nor is she Daenarys Targaryen. He is not Magneto, nor is he Khal Drogo. They are who they are, and no one else. The sadness ends once she realizes that she does not need to lie to make a connection.

Just some guy

This comic book is too short and it manages to be more meaningful and more beautiful than most major releases. I didn't want it to end so abruptly, but the experience will stay with me for a long time.