Athos In America h/c back

After the Page 45 Comicbook of The Month choice ISLE OF 100,000 GRAVES in collaboration with writer Fabien Vehlmann, this collection of stories has Jason back on writing and art duties as per usual. It's the usual collection of laconic oddness and outright weirdness. I did enjoy Vehlmann's somewhat more overt humour in ISLE OF 100,000 GRAVES, I have to say, but there's plenty to amuse here.

The titular story, which is a very loose prequel to THE LAST MUSKEETER, has Athos recounting a sorry tale of lost love and woe to a 1920s New York barkeep about how he was all set to play himself in a Hollywood film of The Three Musketeers before a dastardly love rival ruined his chance at the big time.

'The Smiling Horse' sees characters from one of the stories in LOW MOON feature in a kidnap plot that doesn't so much go wrong, as just all gets very sinister. 'The Brain That Wouldn't Virginia Woolf' is a most bizarre mash-up, as the title suggests, told in a most unorthodox order. 'Tom Waits on the Moon' features an inter-related tale of four very different people that comes a typically Jason conclusion i.e. not a happy ending.

Then there are my two personal favourites with firstly 'So Long Mary Ann' as an escaped convict goes on the lam with his girlfriend who has been waiting for him and the woman they've just abducted to help them escape a police roadblock. As time goes on there's a definite Stockholm Syndrome scenario developing, but will our convict and his new squeeze ride off into the sunset together happily ever after? Err... if you really need that answering you obviously haven't read much Jason.

And finally the apparently autobiographical - though I hope for all concerned really not - 'A Cat From Heaven, in which Jason treats his girlfriend like absolute garbage during a break-up then promptly starts to find the green isn't particularly greener on the other side. Yes, it would be fair to say if you're looking for examples of dark humour in comics, Jason probably would be a very good place to start...