It pays to read Boredom Pays.
Jason Bradshaw’s second installment of Boredom Pays has been nominated for a Schuster award, and I can see why. It’s difficult not to identify with Bradshaw’s protagonist whose heartbreaking struggle with depression is laid bare. At times elated, and at times mired in self-loathing, he is emblematic of the contemporary existential anxieties of the underachiever. Bradshaw’s drawings are reminiscent of the Terrytoons’ era of cartoon, but, unlike its most famous heroes who outwitted every foe to triumph, Bradshaw’s characters suffer more realistic outcomes. Where the protagonist of “Two Years Left” (whose beaky face evokes Heckle and Jeckle) has lofty ambitions, he’s quickly — ahem — cut down to size. But beware of reducing Bradshaw’s narratives to mere nihilism. There’s more to his work than that. for every purported “FAILURE,” there are moments of success, self-acceptance and finding beauty in everyday things. (Sheetal Lodhia)
Comic, #2, Jason Bradshaw, boredompays.blogspot.com