John Arne Sæterøy, known professionally as Jason, is a Norwegian cartoonist born in Molde in 1965. He began publishing comics in magazines during the 1980s but gained wider recognition in 1995 with his first graphic novel, Pocket Full of Rain (Lomma full av regn). Two years later, he launched his own comic book, Mjau Mjau, before shifting his focus exclusively to graphic novels in 2002.
Influenced notably by Hergé, Jason’s work is defined by clear line drawing, minimal text, and the frequent use of anthropomorphic characters. He often uses a four-panel grid (or nine) and favors a muted color palette, but a good part of his oeuvre is in black & white. His visual style remains consistent across his body of work, making his oeuvre coherent and immediately distinguishable from that of other cartoonists.
However, he doesn’t stick to one genre when it comes to the stories he tells. He can write crime and science fiction tales, historical pastiche, romance, and monster stories, often blending historical fiction with pulp tropes. He references Buster Keaton, explores Hemingway’s life with a twist, and talks about his long hikes in Europe. But he always focuses on human problems, exploring solitude, unspoken desire, or the absurdity of routine, often with a touch of melancholy, a dry humor, and an emotional edge.
Since 2001, Jason’s comics have been published internationally, with English editions appearing through Fantagraphics Books. His books are often released earlier in France, where he has lived since 2007 (currently in Montpellier). His work has received multiple awards, including the Eisner Award, the Inkpot Award, the Brage Prize, and the Sproing Award.
Reading Jason Comics: A Guide
To start reading Jason’s work, exploring his bibliography by following the (original) publication order is not what I would recommend. Pocket Full of Rain, which collects his earlier comics previously published in Norway in Mjau Mjau, reflects his sensibilities, but it is not entirely done in his now well-established artistic style, and the stories featuring anthropomorphic characters are not as refined as what we are now used to. However, it is a great read to explore once you are familiar with some of his best comics, to witness the evolution of his visual style and storytelling capacities.
The best entry point would be, in my humble opinion, I Killed Adolf Hitler, probably his most well-known graphic novel. It is a prime example of the kind of unexpected narrative Jason can pull together. A mash-up of genres that starts with a killer-for-hire who is sent back in time to assassinate Hitler, but he gets overpowered, and the Führer uses his time machine to voyage to the present. The killer waited for him all those years, but failed once again to finish the job. Now he has to team up with his ex-girlfriend to track his target down. More twists are coming after that, the biggest one being that the book is mostly about the relationship between the killer and his ex. The tone is typical of Jason’s story, full of melancholy, punctuated with dry humour. An observation of the mundane in a setting that calls for more extraordinary events.
In I Killed Adolf Hitler, you can also appreciate how Jason mastered his clear line drawing style to give a real emotional weight to his characters, something you would not necessarily expect coming from such a simple design–simple in appearance at least.
If sci-fi twists are not your cup of tea, or if you loved I Killed Adolf Hitler and want to go further, I’d recommend The Left Bank Gang. It’s a riff on Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing, starring four famous American literary figures and set in 1920s Paris. Except that Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Pound, and Joyce are Graphic Novelists in this story. They struggle to make a living and team up for a heist. It’s full of discussion about making comics, including criticisms of the latest works by Faulkner or Dostoevsky, but also of personal drama (There’s tension between Fitzgerald and Zelda!), and of course, a load of film noir tropes. Jason wrote a few crime comics, The Iron Wagon is even an adaptation of a classic story by Stein Riverton, but The Left Bank Gang is more representative of his work. The humor, the unconventional narrative structure, and genre mashup, the emotional baggage, and his love for Hemingway. This is prime Jason, from the line on the page to the subversion of expectations.
Following I Killed Adolf Hitler and The Left Bank Gang, there are multiple roads to follow. For another unusual sci-fi tale, The Last Musketeer brilliantly introduced one of Jason’s recurring characters, the immortal Musketeer Athos. For more crime, Why Are You Doing This? is very Hitchcockian and very Jason at the same time.
Jason also did a few monster stories, most of which are in his silent comics. I’d recommend The Living and the Dead, a zombie story with deadpan humor, but for one with dialogue, Werewolves of Montpellier is a must-read. It’s about a Scandinavian artist who disguises himself as a werewolf to commit crimes in the Montpellier nights, but the real werewolves in town don’t like the usurper. It’s part monster thriller, existential drama, and rom-com.
A lot of Jason’s work is composed of short stories. There are a few collections, I’d recommend starting with Low Moon. You’ve got crime, silent, sci-fi, and even western. There are love and murder, chess and cowboys, film noir and cavemen, alien kidnapping and family drama.
And finally, in recent years, Jason tried his hand at memoir comics. Or more precisely, at chronicling his long hikes through Europe. On the Camino relates his experiences walking a 500-mile pilgrimage in Spain for his 50th birthday.
After all of that, there are still more graphic novels to read. What follows is a listing sorted by type of books:
Jason’s Graphic Novels – The Full-Length Stories
- Hey, Wait… (2001) – the story of two childhood friends and the event that changes their lives forever. Reprinted in What I Did (2010)
- The Iron Wagon (2003) – Adaptation of the 1908 novel by Stein Riverton, reprinted in What I Did (2010)
- Why Are You Doing This? (2005) – Hitchcockian’s wrong man style crime comics
- The Left Bank Gang (2006) – A group of American novelists in 1920s Paris turns to crime
- I Killed Adolf Hitler (2007) – Time-traveling existential comics
- The Last Musketeer (2008) – Musketeer Athos takes on the Martians who attacked Earth. It’s Swashbuckling in Space.
- Werewolves of Montpellier (2010) – Monster Comics
- Isle of 100,000 Graves (2011) – A pirate story written by Fabien Vehlmann and illustrated by Jason.
- Lost Cat (2013) – A Detective Story
- Good Night, Hem (2021) – Three interconnected short stories starring Ernest Hemingway.
Jason’s Collections of Short Comics
- Pocket Full of Rain (2008) – A collection of Jason’s earlier work in Mjau Mjau.
- Low Moon (2009) – Collection of the short stories: Emily Says Hello; Low Moon; &; Early Film Noir; and You Are Here
- Jason Conquers America (2011) – To celebrate 10 years of Jason comics in America, this book collects interviews and unpublished strips.
- Athos in America (2012) – Collection of the short stories: The Smiling Horse; A Cat From Heaven; The Brain That Wouldn’t Virginia Woolf; Tom Waits On The Moon; So Long, Mary Jane; and Athos in America
- If You Steal (2015) – Collection of the short stories: If You Steal; Karma Chameleon; Waiting For Bardot; Lorena Valazquez; New Face; Moondance; Night of the Vampire Hunter; Polly Wants a Cracker; The Thrill is Gone; Ask Not; and Nothing.
- O Josephine! (2019) – Collection of the short stories: The Wicklow Way; L. Cohen: A Life; The Diamonds; and O Josephine!
- Upside Dawn (2022) – Collection of the short stories: Woman, Man, Bird; Perec, PI; I Remember; Vampyros Dyslexicos; Seal VII; The Prisoner in the Castle; Crime and Punishment; Ulysses; Ionesco; What Rhymes With Giallo?; The City of Light, Forever; Who Will Kill the Spider?; One Million and One Years B.C.; EC Come…; …EC Go; From Outer Space; and Etc.
- Death in Trieste (autumn 2025) – Three short graphic stories, connected by an absurdist thread.
Jason’s Athos The Musketeer Comics
- Good Night, Hem (2021)
- “Cameo in The City of Light, Forever” (2022) – included in the short stories collection Upside Dawn.
- Athos in America (2012) – included in the short stories collection of the same name.
- The Last Musketeer (2008)
Jason’s Silent Comics
- Sshhhh! (2002)
- Tell Me Something (2004)
- You Can’t Get There from Here (2004) – Monster Comics
- Meow, Baby! (2006) – Monster Comics
- The Living and the Dead (2007) – Monster Comics
Except for Sshhhh!, all are collected in the omnibus Almost Silent (2010). Sshhhh! was reprinted in What I Did (2010).
Jason’s Non-fiction Comics
- On the Camino (2017)
- The Wicklow Way (2019) – included in the short stories collection O Josephine!