“J+K”

A set of trading cards for “Dog Park Dogs,” a sticker sheet celebrating mall culture, a manga-styled mini-poster of the game “Dance Warrior,” and a miniature copy of the popular “Cool Magazine: ‘Brain Blowing Bummers,’” all await readers when cracking open the absolutely gorgeous “J+K” hardcover, out now from Fantagraphics. And let me not forget to mention the pièce de résistance, a sweet 5” vinyl record of the band Gaseous Nebula’s hit tune “Alarum Solus Exeunt!” These are all, of course, bits and bobs of ephemera that exist only in the world of this graphic novel, but will nevertheless help immerse us in the daily, silly non-adventures of our titular characters. Is the whole greater than the sum of this original graphic novel’s parts? Let’s take a look!

Cover by John Pham

Written and Illustrated by John Pham

Form and content converge to create a true sense of wonder in this original graphic novel.
Printed in three fluorescent pantone inks, J&K will be one of the most unique and eye-popping releases of 2020, by one of the most distinctive and talented cartoonists working today. This colorful original graphic novel follows lovable losers Jay and Kay, whose quotidian adventures are often hilarious and occasionally poignant, calling to mind everything from Peanuts to Seinfeld.
Included along with the book is a treasure trove of cute, sad little artifacts: a mini issue of “Cool Magazine,” a sticker sheet, collectible trading cards, a fold-out map and poster, and even a 5” vinyl record! Fun for all ages!

In the considerable downtime I, and I’m sure many of you, have found myself with, spring cleaning has hit a little different. Much of life in general is “hitting different” these days, in fact, and I find myself wondering what to do with all my, uh, crap. Sets of old trading cards I would pore over and sort like sacred texts in my preteen days. Cassettes I’ve owned for decades. And comics, oh, the comics. Mountains of floppies waiting to be sorted, hell, waiting to be read. The desire to live leaner competes with my desire for small comforts. “I just like having it,” muses K about their assortment of almost certainly worthless garage sale finds (which compose the majority of the books “collectible” inserts, including the vinyl). I must say, I find myself agreeing with K, for reasons not completely known. These small collectible items are brief shots of serotonin, little pleasure bombs of nostalgia we can soak in for a short while- and, as such, can bring just as much anxiety when the pleasure wears away. The vestiges of our past have a shelf life on the comfort they can provide. However, I think what artist Pham has done here is nothing short of impressive- commenting on our desire to cling to ultimately trivial artifacts of our former selves, and also creating an objet d’art that is a collection of those very things.

You might recognize Pham’s art from his ‘Kramer’s Ergot #9’ cover circa 2016- at least, that’s where I first noticed his work. His J and K characters have been popping up in his self-published book “Epoxy” for quite some time, however, preceding this OGN by nearly two decades. Pham’s style is a marvelous mastery of Risograph printing- hyper-saturated colors and cartoony characters immersed in the lo-fi fuzz of the combination of paper texture and print style. Reminding me of old Disney comics, especially when the dense color bleeds unmercifully into the paper stock, the neon Pantone palette Pham utilizes is a wondrously trippy experience- I’d call it a “feast for the eyeballs,” but that seems trite and corny. It’s simply a style you don’t see in comics often, and it is a welcome sight, indeed.

The content of the book consists of the episodic lives of J and K, a pair of similar-yet-distinct roommates and besties. An art designer for the Cartoon Network series Problem Solverz, Pham’s art style here would be right at home on the channel, reminding me in particular of J.G. Quintel’s Regular Show, where the mundane mixes with the surreal in measured doses. While J and K are drawn as simple and straight-forward humans demarcated by easily identifiable J + K monographed sweatshirts (in a very Laurel and Hardy, Lenny and Squiggy, Bert and Ernie manner – one short and round, the other long and lean), the supporting characters are often a mish-mash of abstraction and cute-weirdness. Their best frenemy Eggy is a grotesque figure with, well, a face that looks like a bunch of eggs. Their buddy/creation “Bacne” is, yeah, you guessed it, a disgusting yet disarmingly sweet, sentient zit-boy. As Pham takes us through the ins and outs of our main character’s daily lives, you can tell he’s having a blast creating a truly weird but innocuous supporting cast to bounce off of our protagonists.

Though often silly and weird, the book isn’t afraid to veer into the sad, or the heavy, either. Simple trips to the mall evolve into an anxiety attack from J about missing her parents. A stroll through the woods becomes a discussion of war, and K’s father’s PTSD. While the book is targeted for “all ages,” there are certainly discussions in the book that might go over the heads of younger readers. However, there is a frankness and simplicity in Pham’s writing that I think is valuable to readers of any age, and his art style is expressive enough to convey meaning without being cloying.

But let’s veer back to the discussion of the package as a whole, because this graphic novel isn’t just a book, but a collection. Just as J and K fawn over old issues of “Cool Magazine” or Eggy explains the importance of “calc-rock” legends Gaseous Nebula as he tries selling their vinyl at his garage sale, we can also immerse ourselves in the nostalgia, made real and packaged along with the hardcover. I should make mention here that Fantagraphics rarely fail with their book designs, this graphic novel being yet another exquisite looking tome to sit on a shelf, or a coffee table, and in the rare few instances I’ve been able to show this book to other people, it has been fawned over by collectors and non-collectors alike.

What remains astonishing here is the attention to detail, the diagetic pop-culture nonsense of J+K’s world made real, and is such a fun addition to the collection, with their effect seemingly twofold. On the one hand these are really cool artifacts that very much add depth to the imaginative world Pham has created, and on the other hand, it is a gentle, bummer of a reminder that these artifacts of nostalgia are inessential- our memories live on even without the presence of the artifacts in our lives. That being said, what Fanta and Pham have done is put out one of the most strikingly beautiful, impressive books of the year thus far. “J+K” is not only a quirky collection of mostly silly comic strips that occasionally sidestep deftly into more contemplative fare, but also a paean to collector culture, and our insistence on hanging on to disposable artifacts of pop-culture for reasons not exactly explainable. I think I’ll keep it.