Between the opening note of perverse sexuality and the touching tribute to the permanence of true love at the end, murder, time travel and alternate futures fill in the second act of this astonishing graphic novel. Such a tale could only be penned by Jason, the Norwegian cartoonist who mixes outré fantasy with deadpan romanticism. As in all his books, this one is populated exclusively by a cast of lanky anthropomorphic animals. The setting is a world where hit man is just another job; the hero has a dissatisfied girlfriend and a boring job knocking off people who are merely annoying-a too loud neighbor, an overbearing boss. But as usual in Jason's work, the story soon veers off in an unexpected direction when the protagonist is hired to go back in time to kill Adolf Hitler via a time machine that takes 50 years to fully charge. He only has one chance, but messes up, allowing Hitler to come to the present day. The story-perhaps inspired by the French time travel film La Jetée -takes on even more unusual twists from there, before reaching a surprising and completely satisfying denouement that solves both the hero's relationship problems and World War II. Jason continues to be one of the best cartoonists working anywhere. (Oct.)
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"[I Killed Adolf ] Hitler mixes elements of classic time travel science fiction fare with personal melodrama and a strange sense of humor that's unlike anything else in comics today."
Comic Book Resources - Augie De Blieck Jr.
"Augmented with a beautifully muted colour scheme and superb control of his narrative, Jason has crafted yet another gem."
The First Post - Danny Graydon
"Brisk and extremely enjoyable... Hilarious."
"I was expecting something offbeat and madcap (and certainly wasn't disappointed in that regard), but I was also surprised by just how emotional Jason was able to make a story about an Anthro-dog murder society and time traveling hitmen. Yeah, the entire thing is patently absurd on every level - self-consciously and humorously so - but it's also a story about the impermanence of rage and the importance of forgiveness, alongside what a goddamn twat Adolf Hitler can be when all you want to do is shoot the bastard.... [I Killed Adolf Hitler ] is a quick read and very rewarding, and something I imagine I'll come back to from time to time for a while. Smart, funny and surprisingly poignant, this was very good ."
The Savage Critics - David Uzumeri
"I'm reading Jason's I Killed Adolf Hitler, and I'm doing this thing that I do whenever I read new stuff from Jason which is just freaking out because he's so good at what he does."
"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... The deadpan humour, pared-down plotting and simple illustrations featuring Jason’s trademark zoomorphic characters make for a brisk and extremely enjoyable read."
"Dryly riotous... Jason's minimal drawings, dominated by empty space, and his laconic pacing imply that nothing particularly significant is going on, although there is near-constant gunplay, Hitler is on the loose in present-day Berlin, and World War II is about to be eradicated from history. The effect is something like Grindhouse as rewritten by Harold Pinter."
The New York Times - Douglas Wolk
"Funny, surreal, sweet and even romantic, I Killed Adolf Hitler is an inspired, quirky lark that lingers delightfully in the mind."
Entertainment Weekly - "The Best Comics of 2007"
"A masterful story that can be read on more than one level, which is always appealing. [It] is unique and tender and will challenge any preconceptions one might have about the book."
On the Fly Publications/Warrior27 - Chris Beckett
"I Killed Adolf Hitler takes a simple idea and expands it outward into a surprisingly moving meditation on regret, forgiveness and how both might be effected by the opportunity to go back and do it all over again. It's another home run swing from one of Norway's finest cartoonists."
"Top 50 Comics of 2007" - TCJ.com - Dirk Deppey
"With this unfettered imagination and perversely warm nihilism, Jason comes across like a comic-book Kurt Vonnegut, but more focused, sophisticated, reserved, chilling. Each new book is like a paragraph in humanity's compulsively readable collective suicide note."
Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat
"With an economy of line as well as storytelling, Jason is at the top of his game with comics like this, where lighthearted—but slightly dark—stories skim just above the surface of something deep, letting us breathe while we look down at it all."
The Daily Cross Hatch - Jeffrey Brown
"This book contains enough great ideas for several different graphic novels... With this unfettered imagination and perversely warm nihilism, Jason comes across like a comic-book Kurt Vonnegut, but more focused, sophisticated, reserved, chilling."
"[T]he deadpan expressions of the characters say more than pages of words could say... there’s a kinda sweet little love story in there about the protagonist and his girlfriend, and what they find out about themselves and each other in the process of trying to correct history."
"I Killed Adolf Hitler is a fun, silly and slightly creepy comic, a love story wrapped around a time travel paradox, dressed up with gun fighting. In short, it's a perfect comic book."
Newsarama - Michael C. Lorah
"Studying this comic is like peering at the gears of a finely-tuned clock, where one marvels at the way everything fits together... The way Jason is able to swing from playing events for laughs to devastating the audience with tragic, violent events is all made possible by his crisp, clean line and sense of timing... From beginning to end, I Killed Adolf Hitler may be Jason's most successful book. It's the best-constructed and executed, and filled with the sort of longing and pain common in his works, along with mining the humor to found in those sort of situations as well."
