The Iron Wagon (2003)
John Arne Sæterøy, who signs his work with Jason, is one of Scandinavia's most prominent artists of alternative comics. Born in Molde, he started comics career when he was only fifteen years old, publishing in the alternative Norwegian magazine KonK. In 1987 he enrolled at he Art Academy of Oslo to study graphical design and illustration, and subsequently studied at the National School of Arts and Industry. In 1995, a year after graduating, he published a realistically drawn graphic novel, 'Lomma full av Regn' ('Pocket Full of Rain'), for which he won the Sproing Award.
Hey, wait...
Two years later, he founded his own comic book Mjau Mjau, in which he developed his own minimalist style, employing animals as his main characters, inspired by Lewis Trondheim, Jim Woodring and Tex Avery. Jason settled in Copenhagen, and went to work at the Studio Gimle, together with Ole Comoll Christensen and Peter Snejbjerg. Soon, his work found its way to other countries like France, Holland, Slovania, Spain, Germany and the other Scandinavian countries, as well as the USA.
I Killed Adolf Hitler
Fantagraphics has published over 15 of his graphic novels as well as compilations of his earlier work since 2001. These include the gag comedy 'Meow, Baby!', the romantic melodrama 'Tell Me Something', the drama 'Hey, Wait...', the detective thriller 'The Iron Wagon', and the Eisner Award-winning graphic novels 'The Left Bank Gang', 'I Killed Adolf Hitler' and 'The Last Musketeer'. Jason worked with French scriptwriter Fabien Vehlmann to create 'Isle of 100,000 Graves' in 2011. He released the short story collection 'Athos in America' in the following year, when it was also announced that Jason's graphic novel 'I Killed Adolf Hitler' was optioned for a movie adaptation by the British firm Studio Eight.
Jason was an influence on Sophie Crumb and Roman Muradov.
A cat from heaven (from: Athos in America)