Jason (cartoonist)


John Arne Sæterøy, better known by the pen name Jason, is a Norwegian cartoonist, known for his sparse drawing style and silent, anthropomorphic animal characters.
He has been nominated for two Ignatz Awards;, has received praise in Time, and won the Harvey Award for best new talent in 2002, and several Eisner Awards.

Biography

Jason was born in Molde, and had his work published for the first time in 1981 in the Norwegian comics magazine KonK, to which he contributed several short stories during its lifespan. In 1989, he was admitted to Norway's National Academy of the Arts, where he studied graphic design and illustration. He won the Norwegian Comics Association award in 1991 for the short work pervo.
In 1995, Jason published his first graphic novel, Lomma full av regn, for which he won the Sproing Award. In 1997, he started making Mjau Mjau, a semi-regular comic book featuring nothing but his own works. In 2001, he was once again awarded a Sproing, this time for Mjau Mjau 10. Since 2002, Jason has concentrated on making graphic novels.
Jason has lived in Denmark, Belgium, the U.S., and France. Since 2007, Jason has been living in Montpellier, and his recent graphic novels have been initially published in French.
As Jason's exposure has increased, his comics have been published outside of Norway, in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil, and the U.S. His American publisher is Fantagraphics.

Style

Jason's work is usually drawn in a minimalist, clean style, influenced by Hergé's ligne claire. His protagonists are usually anthropomorphic animals and/or B-movie monsters. There is little or no talking, and very rarely any captions.
Jason's comics frequently refer to other works. For example, Tell Me Something is inspired by Buster Keaton's movies, Frankenstein's Monster and related characters appear in You Can't Get There From Here, and fictionalized versions of Ernest Hemingway and other writers are the protagonists of The Left Bank Gang.

Awards