Julian in Purgatory

by Jon Allen

Julian is going to change his life! Get off the couch, get a job, stop disappointing everyone he loves. But first: maybe a couple of pills?

Being the mayor's son comes with a lot of pressure: pressure to conform, perform, and live up to expectations. But Julian's opting out of it all. He’s living on his girlfriend's couch, dealing drugs, and watching the days pass, empty and unfulfilled. It . . . wasn't too bad, to be honest. At least, not until Dana flushed his stash and booted him to the street. Alone, adrift, broke, and jonesing, Julian has burned his last bridge, his schemes have gone from “moronic” to “tied up in an abandoned mine shaft,” and the tiny town of Piney Bluff is swiftly running out of safe harbors for its most fortunate son. It’s time for Julian to take some steps, but first he has to find a way out of purgatory.

An awkward, wince-worthy, and hilarious companion piece to creator Jon Allen’s previous work, The Lonesome Era, Julian in Purgatory is a wild safari through one kid’s bad choices and worse consequences.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Teen, Comics

230 pages, Paperback

Published February 9, 2021

About the author

Jon Allen studied illustration at Pratt Institute and holds a master's degree in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He teaches foundation drawing. In addition to "Ohio Is For Sale," he wrote and illustrated "Vacationland," a self-published graphic novel.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julian is unemployed and unemployable, sitting around all day watching TV and doing drugs. And then his long-suffering girlfriend Dana decides enough’s enough and kicks the deadbeat out. With no money and no place to go, Julian wanders around - the only thing he knows: get more drugs!

Jon Allen’s back with his third book, Julian in Purgatory, that’s not quite as good as his first, Ohio is For Sale, but better than his second, The Lonesome Era. Also his art style has gotten much cleaner over the years and it’s the best it’s ever looked in this one.

It’s very appealing all-ages art with talking animals in place of humans so it’s funny that Allen’s stories all deal with adult themes and the cute animals are doing transgressive things like crushing up and snorting pills!

The story is fairly simplistic, following the usual downwards spiral of the junkie with few surprises, and so the journey is predictable, though not preachy, with its “drugs are bad, m’kay?” moral. It’s not the most memorable or exciting story but it’s never boring either with Allen doing just enough to keep the reader’s attention throughout, and it feels like an accurate portrayal of drug abuse (I’ve only consumed stories of such things, thankfully).

Julian in Purgatory is a fine, nicely-paced comic about relatable issues that’s well-written and drawn by an excellent cartoonist. It’s not gonna blow anyone’s hair back with its originality but it’s an engaging and mildly enjoyable read that’s worth checking out for fans of Adult Swim-type shows/slice-of-life comics.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very low rating on Goodreads for this comic, the topic for which surprised me, somewhat wincingly, as a book about addiction, one of a few I seem to be reading on the topic. This appears to be a cute little Brian O'Malley story featuring anthropomorphic animals, where you keep expecting the punchline but only get punched again and again. Julian is addicted to prescription medication--drugs--and is going nowhere. The son of the former mayor, living with an indulgent girlfriend, she finally kicks him out and he has nowhere to go, sleeps on benches, like thousands of folks in this city.

You keep hoping for the turn to hope and transcendence, but. . . sometimes literature is about disaster, loss, despair, and so I appreciated this stark realism. I had a hard time reading it, still, as I had never had anyone close to me that was severely addicted to drugs, but now do have, and I read this as true life horror, a warning against my naivete and defensiveness (oh, he's not really addicted! He'll pull out of this!). And maybe he will.

Read the review from cartoonist François Vigneault to appreciate what this work is about and why the art work works so well as a counterpoint to the dark themes. Yes, this is kind of starkly miserable, but I for one am thankful for it, and I'll surely read more from Jon Allen.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julian is your stereotypical, unabashed loser druggie. His girlfriend finally gets fed up and kicks him out. Julian never learns as he attempts to take advantage of everyone he knows. He doesn't even care that he's homeless as long as he's high. Only pure luck has kept him alive to this point. Circumstances eventually force him into adulthood even when he continuously tries to screw it up.

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

A non-direct followup to Allen's The Lonesome Era (which I liked a lot), Julian has grown up a bit, and also not grown up at all. He has no job, and wastes his days sitting in front of the tv snorting lines of crushed pills.

I still love Allen's artwork, and I'm all in for a melancholy druggy mopefest, but the story takes some extreme turns involving accidental (sort of?) death, that are too much for me to swallow.

That said, sign me up for a third installment.

(Received an ARC through Edelweiss)

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dana finally works up the gumption to kick her unemployed stoner boyfriend to the curb. Unfortunately, this is not Dana's story, it is Julian's, and we are asked to follow him on the road to rock bottom as he lies and steals in order to get his next fix. Typical unrepentant loser crap.

This is the third collection/reworking of material from Jon Allen's Ohio Is for Sale comic book series (this is an altered version of #9), which seems to be about teen and twentysomething slackers in a small Ohio town in the 1990s. I haven't read the comics or the first book, but I found the second collection/reworking, The Lonesome Era to be as underwhelming and unnecessary as this one, so I think I'll stop picking up Allen's work.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jon Allen remains very good at writing comics.

[François Vigneault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things start off bad and quickly get worse for the titular protagonist in "Julian in Purgatory." The prodigal son of the severe former mayor of an unnamed town in Ohio, Julian is possessed of a bad attitude, a long-suffering girlfriend, and an unrelenting pill habit. When girlfriend Dana's repeated attempts to get Julian into a job and off drugs are rebuffed one time too many, she kicks him out, and the ne'er-do-well Julian, driven by addiction, soon finds himself embroiled in a series of intoxicated mishaps and ill-considered criminal schemes. What starts off as a manic, at times hilarious drug-fueled binge soon takes a dark turn, and Julian finds himself well out of his depth and in truly frightening situations.



Jon Allen's cartoony drawing style (Julian and his friends and enemies are drawn as cats, dogs, bears and other anthropomorphic characters), snappy dialogue, and breezy pacing belie the depth of this graphic novel's themes and narrative heft. Allen's artwork, reminiscent of both Bryan Lee O'Malley and James Kochalka, is drawn in crisp black-white-and-grey tones and is full of subtle jokes and details that reward multiple readings: The feminine scented candles and red wine (sporting hilarious names like "Oak Weasel" and "Wet Elf Merlot") that appear when Dana kicks Julian out of her apartment, the angelic monument to the victims of "Piney Bluff Coal Mine of 1909" that now serves as a seedy meeting spot for drug deals, the rich tapestry of clutter and garbage populating the homes of twenty-something slackers in this down-on-its-luck Rust Belt town.



In the grand tradition of old-school comic strips the book is full of very funny dialogue and expertly-timed situational gags, but "Julian in Purgatory" is a darker and more serious read than it might first appear. The genuine pathos of Julian's drug problem is evident, and the connections to the real-world opioid crisis which is running rampant through communities like the one depicted in these pages are clear. Allen eschews the desire to wrap things up with a neat little bow, and despite some interesting Biblical themes this is no typical "road to redemption" narrative… The underlying problems pushing Julian to drug use aren't magically erased, and the road ahead for everyone in his circle feels daunting. Anyone who has seen a loved one go through the cycles of addiction (or gone through it themselves) will be able to recognize the familiar shadow of relapse that haunts this book.



"Julian in Purgatory" is a stand-alone graphic novel, but it also forms a part of the Allen's wider "Ohio Is For Sale" universe, characters from that book, "The Lonesome Era," and other self-published stories appear here in secondary roles. The depth and breadth of the narrative can be seen at the edges in ways that reminded me of Jaime Hernández's "Locas" stories or David Lapham's "Stray Bullets" series: This world and the characters seem to expand beyond the page (the snappy, chatty scenes with Dana and her pal Veronika in particular make you want to follow along with their story), the reader gets the distinct impression that Allen is going to be mining different corners of his creation for a long time to come. I for one am looking forward to seeing what he finds there.

*ARC provided by the author.

[Peter Derk · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sick and tired of books like this encouraging dogs to use drugs. You know what drugs dogs should get high on? Life. Walkies. Snecks.

And that's all.

Yesterday I was walking with my brother, and we saw this dog on a balcony way, way up above where we were walking, and the dog was prancing around, throwing a toy up in the air and chasing it. My brother said, "I hope that this year I'll be as happy as that dog." And I said, "Good luck, NOBODY is going to be as happy as that dog."

We went for a Beer Walk yesterday. This is a thing I started doing for my birthdays in the COVID era (which, for me, continues...) when I couldn't do a bash with other people and in bars and so on. Basically, I set a walking path, put some beers in a backpack, and hit the road.

On my birthday this year, I walked just over 20 miles. And it was fun! I liked it.

Yesterday, me and my brother walked about 9 miles, then I did another 6 solo because I was feeling emo, I guess. Feeling my age, feeling unoptimistic about the coming year being much different.

I DID start the year eating Wendy's and drinking champagne while walking on a trail, so that was pretty fun, I guess. Or maybe set the tone for 2023, although I'm not sure if it set a good tone or a bad one. Maybe it should just be enough that it's an accurate one. Maybe that's what I should aim for: accuracy. I'm a mix of trash and less-trash, champagne and Double Stacks, and there's no reason to think that's changing in 2023.

Happy New Year?

[Maxine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julian has been living on his girlfriend’s couch, kind of laying back, doing drugs, just chilling. Really, it wasn’t a bad life, that is, until his girlfriend flushed his drugs and booted him out.

He tries to get his father the mayor to help him out but, like his girlfriend, dad thinks he should clean up his act, quit the drugs, and get a job.

But Julian isn’t quite ready for that so he comes up with a plan - well, a kind of plan, not a great plan but he’s sure it will work -until it doesn’t and unless he can find a way out of this mess, the consequences for Julian may be dire.

I’m not really sure how I feel about the graphic novel, Julian in Purgatory. It’s not that I didn’t like it. The writing is fine and the black and white art complemented the story quite well. Trouble was, I didn’t like any of the characters and didn't much care what happened. That may be because I’m not the right audience for it but, if I’m honest and had to sum up my feelings about the book in one word, that word would be Meh.

Thanks to Edelweiss & the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

[Brittany ~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 🌟s rounded up

[Brandon Marin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was at one point Julian!

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edelweiss+ provided me a DRC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I request ARCs of graphic novels a lot because I'm always looking for new ones for my school library. And while the message in this one is definitely a good one, it's probably not something I would give to my middle school students.

Julian is jobless, addicted to drugs, and usually planted on his girlfriend's couch. When she finally kicks him out and he manages to alienate everyone who might help him, he finds himself on a tough downward spiral full of drug use, theft, danger, and death.

I think I would have liked this more if there was a bit of humor (I know, I know...it's not really a humorous story). That might come from the fact that the artwork screams humor--but I guess maybe that juxtaposition is also pretty powerful.

[Felix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic read by Jon Allen with this one tackling prescription drug abuse and addiction. Just when you think the main character is going to improve he keeps getting punched down. The cute anthropomorphic animal characters make the depressing concept a little more lighthearted!

[Zay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taking Drugs or trying to sell them can affect your life and the life of others around you. I think it’s funny this book is suppose to take place in Ohio .
Decent read , nothing ground breaking but can turn dark real quick would recommend to late teens and young adults.

[Raj Bowers-Racine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall it's a 3.5, but I rounded it up to 4 because I can see myself recommending it.

[Fatima · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wicked fast read which will leave you slightly relating to the story; growing up is hard to do.

[StrictlySequential ArtNarrative · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me, a domestic? Sure, I was game when I saw the $teal was Iron Horse published, since S.S.T. seems to have a good eye for the "edgier" sort of talent and it's a key to exercise by adding considerable length to my walks from being, just barely, read-›in-›one-›hand-›walking-›my-›dog sized (7²").

Narrative: *****
The intimate correlations to my own past, when toning the severity, made me understand this story deeply. This Jon Allen, from mere hours drive away, wrote mindset into the character exceptionally well because I was, and in some ways still am, that confused dude residing down I·95 soberly trying to set sights on what will "ignite" my life...

Art: ***
He does the Scandinavian≈Jason cats and dogs cast- except they're smooshed down to being ½head and everything else looks very basic.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

#JulianInPurgatory follows follows Julian, the mayor's son who is kicked out of his girlfriend's house because he doesn't have a job and is spending his day doing drugs. His situation escalates to some dangerous situations, and the reader is left wondering whether he's changing his life and back on the right path. The graphic style is black and white with animal-like characters. The story reads quickly with a few panels per page. Other than being a quicker read and on a relevant current topic, the book won't be a great read for the average school library. Thank you to #NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Julian in Purgatory" is a short comic about Julian, an addict who has been kicked out of his girlfriend's house and is trying to get by on the street. There isn't that much substance to this book, and while it does show a decent representation of addiction, it's ultimately not satisfying because the main character doesn't seem to learn anything or grow at all. I liked the art style enough, but the story just didn't really have all that much to it except "annoying guy has a drug addiction."

[colleen *™ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how this looked. I liked the simple cartoonish art style, and the story feels slice of life with a dark humor. I like the pacing in many of the pages, where the page dedicates panels on one image (like a bird) not directly tied to the narrative, to establish environment or mood. These panels tend to slow down or speed up the pace and it affects how I interpret the story.

I would have liked to have seen the second half of the story slowed down and developed more. Overall though I have a soft spot for these types of indie comics 🩷

[Jesse Holden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best appreciated as a sort of tone piece; I just love Allen’s characters and bold linework, complementing the expressions, the lived-in environments, and how he switches back and forth between flattened side-angle and isometric perspectives. The story of an underachiever getting in over his head may feel a little too familiar to some of us. Like all of Allen’s work, it hit the spot.

[Ian Hrabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've ever known one of those toxic aimless druggy psychic vampire people then you'll know that Julian in Purgatory perfectly captures one of those people. It's a pretty standard story of a true loser, but it gets so many of the little details right.

[Elaine Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jon Allen is a great comics creator and a supremely underappreciated one as well, looking forward to reading more of his work (am also really enjoying the story in this shared universe he's been doing over on Instagram)

[Highland G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read. Synopses makes it sound more clever than it is. It’s about people who don’t want to change but want change to happen for them with no effort or risk to them. Fun as I said. A satirical look at the human condition.

[Alicia]

Reviewing for professional magazine-- see review there.

[Kaoru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely dig the artwork, the paneling and so forth, but it's probably near impossible to write a story about addiction that doesn't come across as somewhat "after school special", I guess.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute, funny 20 min read.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

An alright story but I wasn’t really impressed. Nice illustrations.

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Feels rushed and unfinished

[Aves Trainor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt not funny enough to be a comedy, and not deep enough to work as dramatic fiction. I didn’t love it.