Low moon /

*Starred Review* Norwegian French cartoonist Jason's new book is the first premiered in hardcover in the U.S. and contains his most minimally formatted stories only four same-size panels per page. The characters still sport animals' heads, dialogue is still pretty sparse, colors remain flat, and the emotional tone keeps on lightening up, even though all plotlines lead to death and disappointment. Genre parody continues as Jason's métier, though herein is his most direct lampoon ever: the title story, a takeoff of High Noon seasoned with bits of Rio Bravo. The bad guy comes straight from jail for a rematch with the sheriff, just like in the movie. But the weapons are chessmen, the saloon serves only coffee, bar gab involves recalling who played The Magnificent Seven, high wheelers have replaced horses, and some guys have cell phones. Nary a smile is cracked (ever seen a bird grin?), and the drollery is bone-dry, though moist compared to that of the crime-yarn parodies Emily Says Hello and &. Proto Film Noir riffs outrageously on the cat-came-back trope of the French film shocker Les Diaboliques, and You Are Here builds something wonderful (at last!) out of close-encounter/alien-abduction materials. If you're into genre fiction, have a sense of humor but no time for condescension, and haven't encountered Jason yet, wait no longer.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2009 Booklist

The longest American book to date (and first hardcover) from Norwegian comics master Jason, Low Moon is actually a collection of five marvelously deadpan short stories. The expressionless anthropomorphic animals who populate his comics milk understatement for all the laughs it's worth; they manage to look bored and detached even when they're brandishing swords or exploring alien planets. (Within the context of one of these stories, "Yeah, sure. Why not?" is a punch line.) The core of Jason's breed of humor is his protracted silences-the uproariously uncomfortable moments when his characters are standing around waiting for disaster to strike. A couple of these stories are one-joke twist-ending pieces about the intersection of lust and murder, but the other three are keepers. "Low Moon" itself, initially serialized in the New York Times Magazine, gnarls every convention of the western into knots-the sunrise showdown is a chess match, for one thing, and a bar fight breaks out over an inferior cup of espresso. "&" presents parallel tales about two people who do terrible things to get what they think they want. And "You Are Here" is another genre-bender, a decades-spanning micro-epic about a damaged family alternating between domestic drama and impossibly low-key space opera. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved