Jason Little

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED

Harvard Book Store welcomes acclaimed cartoonist JASON LITTLE, author of Shutterbug Follies and, for a discussion of his latest comic collection, Borb.

Borb by Jason Little is the story of Borb, a severely alcoholic homeless man. Borb is a downtrodden urban Candide whose misfortunes pile up at an alarming rate. The narrative is presented as a series of daily newspaper strips as the author draws on the long and complex tradition of the comic strip slapstick vagabond archetype. At once hilarious, horrifying, and full or heart, Borb depicts the real horrors specific to present-day urban homelessness. Borb is Little's most complex and challenging work.

"What makes Little's approach and execution so impactful is the way it subverts the wacky expectations of the medium. Chestnuts like pratfalls, farts and dentures flying out of mouths are coupled with their real-life spouses: gruesome compound fractures, life-threatening food poisoning, and gory, debilitating oral surgery. This dichotomy is most deftly rendered when the protagonist's frustrating loss of a belt leads to a series of trouser drops presented simultaneously with punch-line rhythm and a sense of heartbreaking hopelessness." —The Chicago Tribune