Get a Life

One-sentence summary: A wonderful comic, gently touching on seriousness without ever wading into it.

Sometimes I buy comics because they're by writers I trust or heard good things about; usually it's because they're collections of series that I've read in single issue form.

Occasionally -- just occasionally -- I will buy a comic for no conceivable reason. Get a Life found its way onto my Amazon wish list at some point, but I couldn't tell you how. When making a large purchase once, filled with expensive hardbounds from the Big Two, I threw in a used copy of this that was being sold for about $4. Of all those comics, I've enjoyed it the most so far.

The premise is simple: Mr. Jean, our protagonist, is a 30-something bachelor who just published, to some limited critical praise, his first major novel, and now he's trying to figure out "what next."

The stories are told in various vignettes, but with the plots and character arcs spanning across the entire book. Some are out-and-out comedic -- a series of gags, for instance, where Jean is suffering from insomnia and an unhelpful friend tells him to think of hippos in love -- while others are mostly serious. The book has a light tone overall, which fits the material. I've been harping on this quite a bit lately, but the combination of droll humor and cartoon-y art lets the pair of artists/writers deal with heartbreak and growing older sincerely without dipping into the maudlin.

It is a uniquely French book. French culture has this majestic ability to sweep you gently into it, so that while you're being entertained you find yourself less aware of it. I find this manifest in M. Hulot's Holiday, in the Maigret books, and here with the life of M. Jean.

Tragedy is too serious of a word, but it was very saddening for me to learn this is the only volume of the M. Jean series translated into English, and, given that it was published 4 years ago, I doubt there are more forthcoming anytime soon. However, since it's available for less than large mocha at Starbucks, I say it's definitely worth picking up.