Martin, Jason – Laterborn #6

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Laterborn #6

OK, to the chronologically curious, here’s the order in which I reviewed these comics: #5, #4 (after about a year and a half) and finally #6 (after about a month).  If you just read one of these reviews and think it might seem a bit more muddled than usual, you’re probably right.  Anyway, after being mildly impressed by #5 and significantly more impressed by #4, this one blew me away.  Jason describes it in his intro as an attempt to wrap up a lot of topics, as he was heading towards 30 and thought he should probably get away from sad high school and college tales.  This means that he crammed all kinds of stories into this one, so for those of you who are looking for the most bang for your buck, here you go.  Stories in here include the healing power of playing Nintendo with friends after being ignored by the girl you like (and making a new friend in college to begin with), a brief piece about aquarium soaps, an awesome video store clerk in Berkeley, and a dream he had years ago about crashing at the home of a very nervous family, which inspired a follow-up dream years later when he stumbled across a written description of said dream.  The heart of this comic, however, is contained in two longer sections.  First up is Jason’s tale of going on tour with his band in 2007, with all sorts of stories about the generosity of others on the road (including bands giving up their door money to help out the struggling traveling bands) and the various people and places he saw.  Then there’s the subject he’s trying to kill: high school memories.  There’s a piece about his Pavlovian response to the public address system at his school ending each class with the first note from “Today” by Smashing Pumpkins, how he just assumed that Kurt Cobain was an asshole until learning more about him after he died (and how much Cobain hated knowing that he had fans who were assholes), the story of Pearl Jam buying up 4 hours of radio time in 1995 to promote little bands that they liked and promoting new projects from friends, how the way he acquires music has changed dramatically over the years, and a piece about a candle and falling asleep to music that honestly flew right over my head.  Still, my not really getting one story (and it’s not like I hated it or anything) in a comic this hefty was impressive.  It’s going to be a shame to have Jason put some of these topics behind him (even though I’m intensely curious to see what he comes up with next), as few people have been able to convey the quiet moments that really make up friendships at that age.  The realization that you’ve started talking like your friends, the tiny things you do to amuse yourselves and how much they can help you out when you’re down.  OK, that veered towards sappiness, but you get the idea.  As you get older your friends have, you know, adult responsibilities and can’t always be there when you need them.  In high school and college, generally speaking, they were occasionally as miserable as you were and got exactly where you were coming from.  It looks like he’s putting together a collection of the best of his stuff, which should be something to see.  In the meantime, I’d start with this one, his best yet, and work your way backwards.  $3