Tell Me Something

by Jason

A blank-eyed, silent meditation on young love thwarted and re-kindled. If we can have graphic novels, we can surely have graphic novellas, and this latest book from the acclaimed Norwegian cartoonist Jason is a prime example of a tight, self-contained volume that tells one complete, satisfying story in a compact 48 pages. Tell Me Something picks up the stylized anthropomorphic characters of Jason's earlier works ( Hey, Wait... and The Iron Wagon ), as well as the challenge of all-pantomime (or almost) comics of Sshhhh! to weave a yarn of young love thwarted and re-kindled. Switching smoothly between two time periods, alternating moments of tenderness and sadness with slapstick and irony, Tell Me Something is a virtuoso technical achievement as well as a funny and sad tale of romance and treachery. New readers will find themselves astonished at how deeply they come to identify with Jason's stylized, blank-eyed menagerie of characters, while those who shed a tear at Hey, Wait... will be somewhat prepared for the emotional wallops contained in this slender but perfect book in which every single line counts, and words are not needed.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Romance, Bande Dessinée, Comic Book

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

John Arne Sæterøy, better known by the pen name Jason, is an internationally acclaimed Norwegian cartoonist. Jason's comics are known for their distinctive, stone-faced anthropomorphic characters as well as their pace reminiscent of classic films.
Jason was born in 1965 and debuted in the early 80's, when still a teenager, in the Norwegian comics magazine 'KonK'. His first graphic novel Pocket Full of Rain (1995) won the Sproing Award, one of the main national awards for cartoonist.
In 2001 Jason started a fruitful collaboration with the American publisher Fantagraphics, which helped him gain international notoriety. Besides Norway and the U.S., his comics have appeared in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil.
Jason's stories feature a peculiar mix of dry humour, surrealism and tropes from a variety of pulp genres, such as noir novels and monster movies. His most celebrated works include: Hey, Wait... (2001), a tale of childhood and trauma; You Can't Get There from Here (2004), a re-telling of the myth of Frankenstein; The Left Bank Gang (2007), featuring fictional versions of Hemingway and other writers living in Paris in the 1920s; I Killed Adolf Hitler (2008), a story that mixes romance and time travel; The Last Musketeer (2009), a love letter to old sci-fi imaginary featuring king's musketeer Athos; Low Moon (2010), one of his many collections of short stories; Werewolves of Montpellier (2010); Isle of 100,000 Graves (2011), a pirate story co-written with French cartoonist Fabien Vehlmann; Lost Cat (2013), a thriller with a surreal spin.
Jason won a Harvey Award for best new talent in 2002 and Eisner Awards in the category 'Best U.S. Edition of International Material' for three consecutive years (2007-2009).
He has lived in Denmark, Belgium, the U.S., eventually setting for Montpellier, France in 2007.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tell Me Something is a short book, with a silent film-era feel, an almost silent comic, featuring a guy who finds a photograph of an old love. This reminds him of those days, and he wonders if this love can be rekindled. He finds her and finds she is unhappy. Can they be happy again as they once were?

So we get a short black and white story of the kindling (in flashbacks) and rekindling, deftly done, a romance of love lost and found. With simple, clean lines and few words, can Jason tug at your heart? Decide for yourself, but I say this is a comics master at work, teaching you in the way of Schulz and Hergé and Chaplin and Keaton about how much you can say and do with very little, with just enough.

A reread, in 2018, after 6 years.

A reread, in 2021. You have to reread the classics! This isn't his very best work, but it is still a storytelling clinic.

[Amirsaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

کی بلده توی زمینه‌ی سیاه‌وسفید فلاش‌بک بزنه؟ کی بلده اینقدر خوب توی داستان عقب و جلو کنه؟ کی بلده فیلم صامتِ کمیکی درست کنه؟ کی با یه سبک ساده و تمیز، قصه‌ی عاشقان ناکام و مردان تنهای چای‌به‌دست رو تعریف می‌کنه؟
جیسون، جیسون، جیسون.

پ.ن.: از ریویوی سم کوویکسوت خیلی استفاده بردم.

[Narjes Dorzade · Rating 3 out of 5]

فکر کنم از اون موقع‌ها که تن‌تن می‌خوندم؛ دیگه این‌طور کتاب کمیکی نخونده بودم.
جالب بود_ نوشیدن قهوه بود بین دو کتاب(شبیه قیافه‌ی جلدش)

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poet turned pickpocket stumbles across a photo of his beloved, long since gone, in the wallet of his latest mark. As he decides to visit his former love, he discovers her home life with her abusive husband is a miserable one and the circumstances of their breakup wasn’t as it seemed. Will the two find happiness together a second time - or is their love doomed forever?

Tell Me Something is probably Jason’s shortest book and he doesn’t write long ones in the first place! This one is just as memorable and poignant though and follows his usual format of a six-panel grid, animal-headed protagonists, black and white colour scheme, and near silent storytelling. There’s even a nod to the silent movies of yesteryear when the few panels that do have dialogue in are presented in that old format: one panel picture, one panel text, one panel picture.

I love how the story switches between the past and the present but you can easily follow the transitions because the past scenes have a black background and the present have a white background. It’s a simple but ingenious and highly effective method that totally fits the overall look and approach of the comic. Jason is able to tell his story without clutter on his pages or panels, with the bare minimum needed, and the reader is able to pick up on everything he’s trying to convey.

Jason’s comics can sometimes have a lot of humour to them but Tell Me Something, like much of his early work, eschews comedy for moving, even sorrowful, pathos. It may not be the best story he’s produced with some sequences, like how the two lovers meet and spend their time, coming off as corny, and it’s over very quickly, but it’s still a brilliant and very enjoyable comic. Jason remains one of the modern comics masters and his work is essential reading for all fans of the medium.

[Ill D · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough sampling of Pulp Fiction’s chronological slicing and dicing meets silent movie era “talkies” in one of Jason’s lesser known works. Whether its era appropriate slapstick or a surprisingly strong dose of the emotional, these otherwise crude images formulate a far more colorful story than their drab pallets would imply.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful story told in a similar way to a silent film - the only dialogue being panels dedicated to the text.

A pickpocketer finds a picture of his old lover in the wallet of a victim. We get flashbacks of their time together as he goes to rekindle the relationship. It's a lighthearted heartfelt comedy with some tragedy thrown in - reminds me in a lot of ways of a Chaplin film.

[Tony Vacation · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another early (almost) silent work by Jason. Tell Me Something does a back-and-forth game of telling the tragic romance of an anthropomorphic pickpocket poet and his one true love. A simple but effective shading of the space bordering the panels ques the reader onto the leapfrogs in time. As plausibly plotted as a Hitchcock flick, Tell Me Something is another bang-up comic about what a weird, wonderful, awful world we live in.

[Larnacouer de SH · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okkkkkkkkk, Jason.

[Verba Non Res · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una historia de inspiración noir, y casi silenciosa (como en Los vivos en los muertos aparece algún que otro cartel con un diálogo, al estilo de las películas mudas). Quizás en otro contexto le daría una calificación más alta, pero en comparación con otras obras de Jason, esta me parece de las menos profundas e imaginativas.

[Ray Nessly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in Feb 2022, as part of the collection, Almost Silent. I'm adding this separate book to my read list so I don't forget that I've already read it, so I don't go out of my seeking it out.
3 stars. Not one of Jason's best, but still entertaining. Very nice b/w art, nearly silent, with some dialogue on black "cards" ala silent films. The early 20th century setting adds to the silent fim-like effect.

[Ludwig Aczel · Rating 4 out of 5]

7.5/10
Jason is a specialist in conveying universal human feelings using anthropomorphic characters that show no facial expressions. This counterintuitive approach to graphic storytelling shines in those comics of him that are mostly silent, like this tragic love story.
Here Jason plays a lot - maybe a bit too much? - with stereotypical images from old movies. Nonetheless, this is counterbalanced by a clever storytelling structure, where present and past events are revealed in parallel. Nothing extraordinary, still a good job.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure what to make of this—I just feel like there's not enough scaffolding to tell this story. I'm interested in what's going on here, but it's like I tell my poetry students: you have to do at least 51% of the storytelling if I'm meant to meet you halfway.

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This "silent film" style volume from Jason brings a lot of the elements that I enjoy from his books. The unique style and humour is great and, like some other Jason books, it asks for some attention to follow along with multiple timelines.

[Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very inventive storytelling - back and forths between two timelines of our protagonist and his love - one about their early times and one in the present where he and his love find each other again. Lots of drama, lots of heart. Not my favorite Jason book so far as I did find it slightly underwhelming, though of course, being a Jason book it felt quite substantial. Perhaps it was the sparseness of the length and not having enough room to stretch its legs and fluff up our relationships with the characters. I appreciated the black and white as well as the subconscious labeling of black backdrop to white backdrop changes of the timelines, which I only noticed at the very end when I was kind of confused and had to flip around to figure it out.

[Pok Manero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recurriendo a la estética del cine mudo (con todo e intertítulos), Jason nos cuenta una historia prescindiendo casi por completo de palabras. El personaje principal es, aparentemente, el mismo protagonista de Sshhhh!, el anterior trabajo del caricaturista noruego. Aquí comienza la historia como un ladrón de poca monta que, por azares del destino, se reencuentra con un antiguo amor e intenta recuperarlo. Me encanta la elegancia y sutileza con que Jason salta entre distintos tiempos, usando marcos blancos para las viñetas de las secuencias que ocurren en el presente y marcos negros para los flashbacks. Giros inesperados y tragedias pasadas y actuales nos mantienen “al borde del asiento” hasta el final, que nos deja una sonrisa irónica y triste en el rostro.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not necessarily one of Jason's bests, and yet Tell Me Something showcases his deft storytelling prowess. Told in a more or less wordless manner - with the occasional intertitle to capture the sensibilities of a silent film - the story follows a man and woman attempting to rekindle their former relationship with the world stacked against them.

A nonlinear narrative, Jason freely jumps across time and setting seamlessly, with even daydreams and hypotheticals sprinkled in for good measure. Without words, one might question how easy this type of nonlinear storytelling works, but Jason is just that masterful of a visual storyteller. Like I said in the opening, there are more iconic Jason works - but Tell Me Something is simply classic Jason.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

TELL ME SOMETHING by Jason - it was probably a mistake to binge read several of Jason’s graphic novels in a row or maybe just a mistake to wait until months later to write about them, as I can’t really remember what this one was about, and even going to summaries on the web doesn’t really help. With that in mind, my best recollection is that my immediate experience was more “distanced admiration” than “compellingly engaged.”

[Aritra Dasgupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun predictable tale which left me very confused the first time because I didn't realise it was two different timelines and thought they were different outcomes, perhaps imagined. So yeah TIP: LOOK AT THE BORDERS. Otherwise, it was predictable and just meh. It's obviously Jason here and I also liked the silent movie treatment. But yeah forgettable mostly.

[Nestor B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jason impresses once again. A silent film in comic form — no speech bubbles, but occasional title cards between panels for dialogue. There are no fantasy elements here, just a poignant recollection of a tragic love story, complete with gangsters, angry fathers, and complications. It’s remarkable how effectively such a story can be told with such simple tools.

[Chris Parsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

The animals in this one were birds and it seemed so much harder to tell them apart. On top of that, the dog characters wear beak masks to look like the birds so you having no fucking clue who is who by the end.

[Juan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo que me.encanta de Jason es esa capacidad de contar historias con poco texto, simples. Sería aún mejor en este caso que no tuvieran nada de texto pero no sé si sea posible. Ahora... Con respecto a la historia realmente en este caso no entretiene.

[Stein Roar · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Si meg en ting" er en av Jasons tidlige tegneserier, den kom ut i 2003. Her møter vi den fattige fuglemannen som forelsker seg i en overklassepike. Det liker ikke pikens far, og det blir masse intriger i kjent Jason stil.

[Alexander Lisovsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

История любви, грусти, пересекающихся судеб и драмы в мире человекоподобных существ Джейсона. На этот раз практически без диалогов.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

2

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[suzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

雖然對白很少，但我覺得這本漫畫對臉盲人很不友善啊 😭 （看完了還是不懂誰是誰、發生了什麼事）

[Daylla · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5)

[Hafeez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Psychologically complex

[Asser Mattar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the illustrations, but I didn't get it in the end.

[Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

✭✭✭½