Article originally written by Steve Ponzo
A failed artist moves to France, disguises himself as a werewolf, begins a career in burglary, and falls in love with a lesbian. Everything is working out just fine, until a real werewolf shows up and that’s when the trouble starts. The Werewolves of Montpellier is filled with deadpan comedy, unrequited love and existential drama all filtered around a lycanthropic thriller. All in all this is your typical Jason book
This brand new release from Fantagraphics is a return to form for Jason. After three straight anthology collections, he is back with his first all new story since his Eisner award winning release in 2008. “Werewolves of Montpellier” is another perfect example of Jason’s mundane absurdity. We follow the banal lives of animal faced people, dealing with profound life issues and reacting in the most deadpan ways.
The story features a werewolf chasing a fake werewolf across the rooftops of Montpellier at night, but this isn’t where you’ll find the real drama in this story. Instead it’s found in the everyday interactions between the characters. The most tense, heartbreaking and humorous scenes are found in the silences. A subtle look between two characters says more than any amount of words ever could.
Jason is somehow able to balance themes of sorrow and loneliness with laugh out loud moments. His absurd sense of humor is used as a means to set up those touching moments. Early in the story there is a hysterical conversation about, of all things, escalators. This silly little chat between two friends in the opening pages of the book perfectly sets up a heartbreaking moment later in the story. In a silent and subtle four panels Jason is able to show us exactly who this main character is by his simple choice of taking the stairs instead of the escalator.
The artwork is, once again, so simplistic and so spot on that the only word to describe it is brilliant. Each page consists of 8 panels and each panel is filled with basic contour line work and flat color. Yet, there is magic in Jason’s pen. Somehow, in a way I’ll never fully understand, Jason can take expressionless anthropomorphic humans drawn in the simplest of styles and still manage to create the most realistic heartbreak you’ll find in any comic on the shelves.
Year after year, Jason delivers genre-defining works of art, and the Werewolves of Montpellier is nothing more than the latest masterpiece from one of the mediums most profound and unique voices.
