Jason - I Killed Adolf Hitler

IDIOSYNCRATIC SCI-FI

Having re-imagined heavyweight modernist writing icons Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound as criminals involved in a heist in The Left Bank Gang, and plundered George Romeo’s zombie films for The Living and the Dead, Norwegian cartoonist Jason’s latest wheeze of a graphic novella invents a time-travelling professional assassin who attempts to exterminate the Fuhrer with predictably bizarre results. In fact, the time slip is one of three story strands in this slim 48-page volume, the others being the legalisation of murderers-for-hire and an ailing and chronologically challenged romance between a killer and his sweetheart.

The deadpan humour, pared-down plotting and simple illustrations featuring Jason’s trademark zoomorphic characters make for a brisk and extremely enjoyable read. One exchange between the estranged lovers runs thus: ‘I just killed Adolf Hitler and I need to get rid of his body.’ ‘Adolf Hitler?’ ‘Yeah, it’s kind of a long story.’ Hilarious.