Viola, Jason – Herman the Manatee #2

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Herman the Manatee Volume 2

In the cliffhanger of a review for the last issue I was left wondering if the set-up for this strip (Herman hits his head on a boat when he tries to surface in a variety of hilarious ways) would wear thin by the second issue. The verdict: well, it’s not like Jason had to keep that as the story for the whole run, now did he? This starts off with us learning a bit more about Herman’s early days (along with what a disappointment he was from a very young age) before he moves on to write reviews for his head-bumping experiences, goes to a party (or not. You choose!), sings a bit, takes a personality test, votes, bores his dad on his deathbed, fails to save Christmas  and then goes all Samuel Beckett on us. That’s about half of the book, and I was already impressed with Jason’s ability to keep this thing fresh and funny. But then things shift suddenly when Herman notices a distinct lack of head bumpings. It turns out that a deal has been struck to keep the boats out of the area in exchange for the manatees being willing to be kissed and ridden by tourists. Herman goes along with this for a bit but soon grows to miss his daily concussions and goes into activist mode, but I’ve probably said too much already. If you thought the first book was funny or just happened to go to Jason’s website and chuckled at a few of the strips, you’ll be happy to know that he does manage to keep up the pace for another issue. He’s pretty much fully won me over too, although I suppose things could still fall apart in the next couple of issues. Nah, he already got past the hard part. $3