Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories

This multifaceted anthology—our 12th Jason graphic novel—wraps up Fantagraphics' near-complete collection of Jason's oeuvre (minus just a few pieces of juvenilia) by printing selections from Jason's early-1990s work, including his remarkable calling card, the novella-length thriller Pocket Full of Rain, which has never before been published in English. Like a number of his initial stories, Pocket is actually drawn with realistic human beings instead of blank-faced animal characters—a true revelation for Jason fans. In fact, this book showcases three distinct styles: his earliest "realistic" drawing style (used to unsettling effect in some particularly creepy stories),an intermediate "bighead" cartoony style that still features humans (used for both humor and drama),and the "funny-animal" style he's now best known for. Readers who like Jason's anthropomorphic style won't be disappointed, though, as the book includes a number of tales done in that fashion, featuring (among other things) Death, a guy waiting for a bus, and croquet-playing nuns; over 40 "daily strip" format gags; a trio of hilarious parodies of other pop media work including Corto Mjautese and an elaborate riff on Basil Wolverton's Spacehawk done Jason style; and much more.