Little, Jason 1970-

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LITTLE, Jason 1970-

PERSONAL:

Born 1970, in Binghamton, NY; partner of Myla Goldberg (a writer). Education: Attended Oberlin College.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—453 Washington Ave., 5A, Brooklyn, NY 11238-1835. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Graphic artist and writer. Beekeeper Cartoon Amusements, Brooklyn NY, founder. Taught at the junior-high level and worked for Music Television Video.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Xeric Foundation grant.

WRITINGS:

(And illustrator) Shutterbug Follies, Doubleday Graphic Novels (New York, NY), 2002.

Creator of the comic-book series Jack's Luck Runs Out and Shutterbug Follies; contributor to anthologies.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and graphic artist Jason Little, who has worked for MTV, is now concentrating full-time on his own growing output and successful Shutterbug Follies, more than a dozen installments of which he has made available for viewing on his Web site Beekeeper Cartoon Amusements.

Little's first comic-book series, "Jack's Luck Runs Out," was published with a Xeric grant to rave reviews. Jack, a gambler and card counter in Las Vegas, and the other characters in the strip, including queens and kings, are drawn flat, as though on playing cards, in colors of blue, red, yellow, and black enhanced by the patterning typically found on cards.

In an interview with Little originally published in Fright X magazine, Jonathan Lomma asked him to explain his self-imposed limits. In addition to only using the twelve faces that appear on playing cards and the limitation in colors mentioned earlier, Little added that "later, I decided that to keep everything consistent, I would keep the perspectives flat, because contemporary playing cards are derived from medieval drawings, and I wanted to go with that kind of naive perspective, so everything is in plane view, or elevation view, or drawn with orthogonals. Everything is flat. Things are either shown from the front, the back, or above."

Matt Madden noted in a profile of Little for Comics Journal that "the notion of playing cards gambling and, well, playing cards, suggests an apt metaphor for the vicious circularity of gambling, luck, and fate—all classic themes of pulp literature, not to mention literature in general." Madden also commented, "Little's style is further enriched by his strong ear for dialogue. He shows a facility for naturalistic dialogue, which helps to ground the formality of many of his narratives, yet he is also adept at other styles, sometimes to hilarious effect."

In an interview with Popimage.com's Marc Bryant, Little talked about the beginnings of Jack's Luck Runs Out, and on his own Web site gave sound advice to aspiring comic creators on technical details, costs, publishing and self-publishing, applying for grants, and distribution. Little self-published his comic books through his Beekeeper Cartoon Amusements, and it was distributed by Top Shelf.

The central character of the "Shutterbug Follies" series is Bee, a young woman just out of high school who works in a photo processing shop and makes extra prints of some of the more interesting photos that pass through her hands to share with her friend Lyla. These are typically of a sexual or gross nature, but when she comes across a photo of a female corpse in a bathtub, she decides to follow the man who brought in the film, a decision that soon exposes her to the Russian mob and puts her in danger. After this, further adventures are planned.

The comic book is done in the typical black and white, but for the graphic-novel publication Little, who described the story as "bubble gum noir," colors his panels in brilliant shades. The hardcover book is printed in a horizontal format. A Publishers Weekly reviewer, who called it a "pop-art, candy-colored palette," wrote that "the narrative flows gorgeously through quiet domestic moments, action scenes, and a hair-raising dream sequence."

Nick Hornby, who reviewed the book for the New York Times Book Review, noted Bee's resemblance to Hergé's red-haired character Tintin, a strip favored by Little when he was younger. Hornby saw similarities between Little's art and "Hergé's strong, crisp, bright graphic art." He also mentioned that the story is "essentially a sweet-natured adventure yarn," but one that includes adult references and depictions that combine in a "curious" tone, "like a Nancy Drew mystery adapted by Brian DePalma."

The story "is well-told, with a drawing style that is simple and direct. The pacing draws the reader forward smoothly and efficiently," according to Robert Ryan Langer in FictionAddiction.net.

Sabrina Suman reviewed Shutterbug Follies for Nerdbait.com, saying that "the writing seems to suck you in.… I couldn't stop reading. The art is cartoonish but stylish at the same time; it's quite endearing."