Young, Jason – Veggie Dog Saturn #3

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Veggie Dog Saturn #3: Jason’s Quest

There’s one glaring problem with this comic that didn’t occur to me until I had finished reading it and was scanning the cover for this review: what exactly is Jason’s Quest?  It would make sense with a different cover, but that one makes it look like he’s desperately searching for either love or sex, and this book doesn’t seem to have anything of the sort.  This comic begins with Jason, about to “celebrate” his 31st birthday, freaking out about the fact that the degree he was going for was something that would probably end up making his life miserable (looks like some kind of advertising degree, and Google “Bill Hicks Advertising” to get the perfect quote for that (nothing personal to Jason)).  There was also the fact that “all he had to show for it” was a few comics very few people have seen.  Maybe in a calmer moment he saw that the sum of our lives is not just the things we produce and consume but the effect we have on those around us, or maybe he didn’t.  Works for me anyway.  Jason, on the spur of the moment, accepts an invitation from some friends to go bike riding in Toronto after the semester is over, and the rest of the comic deals with Jason’s lost ticket home, a friend who lost a passport, the other people in the hostel, a naked bike ride (consisting mostly of middle-aged people), and all of the calamities that come with being far from home and without a solid home base.  It’s a hefty thing at 30 pages, there’s a suitably bleak ending, and there’s even a more uplifting message on the color strip of the back cover: maybe sometimes you should take some advice from your cat.  That won’t make sense to most of you and that’s fine, but believe me, his ending message is excellent.  I’ve seen plenty of these travel comics in my years of running this website and this is one of the better ones.  There’s a moment when he “figures it all out”, but there’s nothing preachy about it and it’s the kind of quiet conclusion that’s perfect for this story.  Good stuff, that’s what I say.  $3