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28th out of 104 books
—
50 voters
The Left Bank Gang
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce walk into a Parisian bar... no, it's not the beginning of a joke, but the premise of Jason's unique new graphic novel.
Set in 1920s Paris, The Left Bank Gang is a deliciously inventive re-imagining of these four literary figures as not only typical Jason anthropomorphics, but... graphic novelists! Yes, in Ja...more
Set in 1920s Paris, The Left Bank Gang is a deliciously inventive re-imagining of these four literary figures as not only typical Jason anthropomorphics, but... graphic novelists! Yes, in Ja...more
Paperback, 48 pages
Published
August 17th 2006
by Fantagraphics
(first published 2005)
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F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce walk into a Parisian bar… no, it’s not the beginning of a joke, but the premise of Jason’s unique new graphic novel. Set in 1920s Paris, The Left Bank Gang is a deliciously inventive re-imagining of these four literary figures as not only typical Jason anthropomorphics, but…graphic novelists! Yes, in Jason’s warped world, cartooning is the dominant form of fiction, and not only do these four work literary giants work in the comic...more
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The Left Bank Gang's premise -- positing Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound and James Joyce as struggling cartoonists in 1920s Paris -- is an intriguing one, and for the first half of his rather slim but not slight story, Jason humorously plays up the writer/cartoonist angle while clearly establishing each of his lead characters and their relationships to one another, before setting his real story in motion, a Rashomon-style tale of double and triple-crossing as the quartet come u...more
Acclaimed cartoonist Jason's graphic novel The Left Bank Gang suffers from having one clever idea too many. The idea of the expatriate American authors who lived in Paris after the war being cartoonists rather than short story writers or novelists is cute; the idea of those same expats trying to alleviate their financial pressure by stealing the gate from a big prize fight is compelling. But the book spends too much time on the first idea to give the second enough room to breathe.
That being said...more
That being said...more
What would it be like if Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce were four struggling cartoonists living in Paris? Add to that idea a scheme for them to get rich in an afternoon and you have
The Left Bank Gang
by Norwegian artist/writerJason. Did I mention this is a graphic novel and everyone is drawn as animals?
The Left Bank Gang is a funny, smart, and imaginative interpretation of writers associated with the Lost Generation. It's an engaging, slim volume that blends...more
The Left Bank Gang is a funny, smart, and imaginative interpretation of writers associated with the Lost Generation. It's an engaging, slim volume that blends...more
Lo que mas me gustó es la percepción del autor acerca de las historietas y su retrato de lo que es ser un escritor de historietas. París en los años 20 está excelente me gustó la idea de situar la historia en ese contexto aunque no me impresionó tanto el uso de nombres famosos, en lo personal me da igual si es hemingway o un donadie, los personajes me encantaron en especial el de hemingway y el de james joyce.
Jason es un genio, lo sigo creyendo, esta historieta lo confirma una vez mas, la recomi...more
Jason es un genio, lo sigo creyendo, esta historieta lo confirma una vez mas, la recomi...more
“The Left Bank Gang” (2006) emphasizes Jason’s link to the Lost Generation author since it imagines Hemingway, Fitzgerald, James Joyce and Ezra Pound as starving cartoonists in Paris in the 20s. They hang out at the Deux Magots, deal with harsh critics, spend too much time drawing cartoons, and complain about American tourists, the French, and how tough it is to get work. It’s surprising how much actual biographical material Jason has packed into panels, including scenes with Zelda Fitzgerald, H...more
Jason's characters are, visually speaking, made up of a few interchangeable characteristics/parts. I always wondered how he chose which character would have which parts, like ok these two will look the same but one will have droopy ears and one will have perky ears and one will have little whiskers that stick out the sides. I always figured it was completely arbitrary. But man, the second I saw the F Scott Fitzgerald character I knew it was Fitzgerald. Same with Hemingway and Joyce. Somehow he t...more
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I'll admit it: I held off on ever reading a book by Jason because I really hated the whole I-don't-need-a-last-name thing, and if it hadn't been that I found this book at the library the day after being really let down by a Batman movie, I would still be living in that sad ignorance.
This book is hilarious, weird, simple, and awesome. It is so effortlessly clever and ticklesome I don't even know what to say about it. Except if you are avoiding him like I did, don't do that anymore.
This book is hilarious, weird, simple, and awesome. It is so effortlessly clever and ticklesome I don't even know what to say about it. Except if you are avoiding him like I did, don't do that anymore.
I read this right after finishing The Autobiography Of ALice B. Toklas. It was nice to return to these familiar characters. Jason gives them more depth than Gertrude Stein did. This book is different from his usual work in it's use of historical characters. I am pleased to see him experimenting. The book has Jason's usual great ideas but they weren't quite as well executed as usual. It was enjoyable but felt like it could have been better
Another slender wonder from my Norwegian namesake. American expat literary luminaries living in 1920s Paris are re-imagined as anthropomorphic animal cartoonists in a world where novels are always of the graphic variety. Growing tired of his poverty and inspired by a random robbery, Ernest Hemingway hatches a heist with the help of Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce. Tightly plotted, quickly read, thoroughly enjoyed.
Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound and Joyce are anthropomorphic struggling cartoonists in 1920s Paris who decide rob a bank. As you do.
The best parts are when Gertrude Stein gives Hemingway two pages worth of advice -- use a blue pencil, so you don't have to erase it, avoid narrative captions (which are then used further down the page,) never copy a photograph, and on and on -- and when Hemingway and Fitzgerald head off to the men's room to determine if Zelda is right when she says Fitzgerald isn't...more
The best parts are when Gertrude Stein gives Hemingway two pages worth of advice -- use a blue pencil, so you don't have to erase it, avoid narrative captions (which are then used further down the page,) never copy a photograph, and on and on -- and when Hemingway and Fitzgerald head off to the men's room to determine if Zelda is right when she says Fitzgerald isn't...more
Ok, everybody being an anthropomorphic animal is something that I can live with. I can accept having some of the most famous literary minds teaming up to perform a robbery because they are so poor. But a world where all books are comics and the likes of Hemingway and Scott were comic book artists/authors? Preposterous! That is just shear insanity. Who would want to live in a world such as that?
(7/10) Great concept, so-so execution. I love the idea of reinterpreting literary authors as graphic novelists, and would love to see more done with it. The Left Bank Gang appears at first to be just an exploration of that idea, with our (for some reason) canine authors wandering around Paris, acting like we generally expect our modernist icons to act. And then it turns into a pomo crime story, and I love a promo crime story as much as the next guy (in fact, significantly more than the next guy)...more
"The Left Bank Gang" is about Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound, and Joyce as they struggle in 1920s Paris to make a living as writers. Gertrude Stein makes an appearance as the sage advisor to Hemingway regarding his work - "Don't clutter up the panels with too many words, let the drawings breathe" - as all famous novelists are here presented as famous comics artists with their work as masterpieces of graphic art. Fitzgerald's drinking is highlighted as well as his turbulent relationship with his wi...more
As a fan of modernist writing, how could I not love F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Joyce, Pound, and others caught up in a Parisian heist, with Zelda as the femme fatale?
I later read Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast", a memoir of Paris at this period, which Jason seems to have used as a source for several scenes in here. If you like this book, check out the Hemingway for more context.
I later read Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast", a memoir of Paris at this period, which Jason seems to have used as a source for several scenes in here. If you like this book, check out the Hemingway for more context.
This was a fun, quick read--Pound, Joyce, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald are comics artists wiling away their days in Paris, trying to sell their work. There are great details, like trips to Shakespeare & Co. and a conversation with Stein. That alone would have made it fun, but Jason gave it a twist by imagining a heist engineered by Hemingway...
This was the first book I read by Jason and it blew my mind. His 'simple' drawings and characters contain an incredible amount of hidden but tangible emotion, while the structure with the four perspectives is captivating like the best movie. This catapulted Jason right to the top of my list of favorite graphic novelists.
a fun read, but i didn't enjoy this as much as the other Jason books i've read. this one is my least favorite so far. I'm not too big on the authors he choose for the book, and i would have rather just read about them being crappy cartoonist, then bank robbers. Still enjoyable though.
via NYPL - Jason takes on the American expatriate writers living in Paris in the 1920s, but with a Jasonian twist - they're all cartoonists and they play a heist together. Double-crosses, literary gags and metatextual tomfoolery abound. Another terrific book from a master cartoonist.
Pretty entertaining graphic novel postulating Hemingway, Stein, Pound, Fitzgerald -- all that set as cartoonists struggling in '20s Paris -- and then morphs into a bank heist. Great cartooning, excellent storytelling. It meshed nicely with my recent reading of The Paris Wife.
mostly it was confusing i couldnt idnetify the characters based on sight and he only mentions names every once in a while and the characters all looked too similar... but i love jason, i would almost have preferred if it was wordless like so many of his other books
Jason is one of the best artists working today. In this installment of his brain, he follows Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound, Joyce and Stein in 1920's France as they work on comics instead of literature and try to find ways to make more money. Awesome.
Hemingway, describing his life as a comic artist:
'It's the only thing I know how to do. I can't drive a bus or hit a nail with a hammer. I can tell a story in tiny pictures and fuck up my eyesight a little more every day'
That's all I have to say.
'It's the only thing I know how to do. I can't drive a bus or hit a nail with a hammer. I can tell a story in tiny pictures and fuck up my eyesight a little more every day'
That's all I have to say.
What a strange little book. I was disappointed by the ending, and found the story predictable about half way in, but the blending of Reservoir Dogs, 1920s Writers' club Paris, and odd animal art made for a worthwhile perusal.
Fun, creative, FAST read. Inspired me to read the Wikipedia articles on Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald (reading these articles took approximately 4x as long as reading the comic itself).
Genial pieza de Jason. Lo vuelve a lograr. La historia, el ritmo, el uso de personajes de la cultura popular desde el contexto de los comics es maravilloso y divertido. Brutal
The first 20 pages read like the thrill of an exotic spice bursting from a fork, the last 26 read like the slow realization that the spice is dill. The artwork is nice tho.
Four stars, but a slightly lesser four stars, despite the awesome characterization of these famous people and how easy it is, in some ways, to recognize them, even though they've been Jasonized, i.e., turned into animals. Pound is, of course, scruffy. Fitzgerald looks cute and pathetic. Joyce is neat. And so on. I'm not sure the heist plot quite comes together, although I like the multiple perspective method of showing it. I probably prefer, in the end, that he make up his own characters, althou...more
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Jan 15, 2009 09:30am