What do you think?
Rate this book
Empire State: A Love Story
Jimmy is a stereotypical geek who works at the library in Oakland, California, and is trapped in his own torpidity. Sara is his best friend, but she wants to get a life ( an apartment in Brooklyn and a publishing internship). When Sara moves to New York City, Jimmy is rattled. Then lonely. Then desperate. He screws up his courage, writes Sara a letter about his true feelings, and asks her to meet him at the top of the Empire State Building (a nod to their ongoing debate about Sleepless in Seattle ).
Jimmy's cross-country bus trip to Manhattan is as hapless and funny as Jimmy himself. When he arrives in the city he's thought of as "a festering hellhole," he's surprised by how exciting he finds New York, and how heartbreaking—he discovers Sara has a boyfriend!
Jason Shiga's bold visual storytelling, sly pokes at popular culture, and subtle text work together seamlessly in Empire State, creating a quirky graphic novel comedy about the vagaries of love and friendship.
Praise for Empire
"He [Shiga] displays a wicked sense of comic timing."
- Publishers Weekly
" Empire A Love Story (Or Not) is funny, sweet, geeky and affecting, and definitely worth a read."
-Wired.com
"Shiga's illustrations . . . are unique and endearing, and his images of NYC are instantly recognizable."
- am New York
"If Woody Allen grew up in Oakland rather than Manhattan, he'd most likely see the world, and especially New York City, as Jason Shiga does in Empire State ." -Big Think.com
Jimmy's cross-country bus trip to Manhattan is as hapless and funny as Jimmy himself. When he arrives in the city he's thought of as "a festering hellhole," he's surprised by how exciting he finds New York, and how heartbreaking—he discovers Sara has a boyfriend!
Jason Shiga's bold visual storytelling, sly pokes at popular culture, and subtle text work together seamlessly in Empire State, creating a quirky graphic novel comedy about the vagaries of love and friendship.
Praise for Empire
"He [Shiga] displays a wicked sense of comic timing."
- Publishers Weekly
" Empire A Love Story (Or Not) is funny, sweet, geeky and affecting, and definitely worth a read."
-Wired.com
"Shiga's illustrations . . . are unique and endearing, and his images of NYC are instantly recognizable."
- am New York
"If Woody Allen grew up in Oakland rather than Manhattan, he'd most likely see the world, and especially New York City, as Jason Shiga does in Empire State ." -Big Think.com
144 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2011
22 people are currently reading
930 people want to read
About the author
Jason Shiga
19 books156 followersJason Shiga is an award-winning Asian American cartoonist from Oakland, California. Mr. Shiga's comics are known for their intricate, often "interactive" plots and occasionally random, unexpected violence. A mathematics major from the University of California at Berkeley, Mr. Shiga shares his love of logic and problem solving with his readers through puzzles, mysteries and unconventional narrative techniques.
Jason Shiga's life has been shrouded in mystery and speculation. According to his book jacket, he was a reclusive math genius who had died on the verge of his greatest discovery in June 1967. However, upon winning a 2003 Eisner award for talent deserving of wider recognition, a man claiming to be Jason Shiga appeared in front of an audience alive and well only to tell them that he had been living on an island in the South China Seas for the past 40 years. The man who accepted his award was Chris Brandt (also known as F.C. Brandt), who had disguised himself as Jason Shiga, and accepted the award at the behest of Jason's publisher (Dylan Williams of Sparkplug Comic Books) and Jason himself.
At the age of 12, Shiga was the 7th highest ranked child go player in Oakland.[citation needed]
Jason Shiga makes a cameo appearance in the Derek Kirk Kim comic, "Ungrateful Appreciation" as a Rubik's Cube-solving nerd. Shiga is credited as the "Maze Specialist" for Issue 18 (Winter 2005/2006) of the literary journal McSweeney's Quarterly, which features a solved maze on the front cover and a (slightly different) unsolved maze on the back. The title page of each story in the journal is headed by a maze segment labeled with numbers leading to the first pages of other stories.
Jason Shiga's father, Seiji Shiga, was an animator who worked on the 1964 Rankin-Bass production Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Jason Shiga's life has been shrouded in mystery and speculation. According to his book jacket, he was a reclusive math genius who had died on the verge of his greatest discovery in June 1967. However, upon winning a 2003 Eisner award for talent deserving of wider recognition, a man claiming to be Jason Shiga appeared in front of an audience alive and well only to tell them that he had been living on an island in the South China Seas for the past 40 years. The man who accepted his award was Chris Brandt (also known as F.C. Brandt), who had disguised himself as Jason Shiga, and accepted the award at the behest of Jason's publisher (Dylan Williams of Sparkplug Comic Books) and Jason himself.
At the age of 12, Shiga was the 7th highest ranked child go player in Oakland.[citation needed]
Jason Shiga makes a cameo appearance in the Derek Kirk Kim comic, "Ungrateful Appreciation" as a Rubik's Cube-solving nerd. Shiga is credited as the "Maze Specialist" for Issue 18 (Winter 2005/2006) of the literary journal McSweeney's Quarterly, which features a solved maze on the front cover and a (slightly different) unsolved maze on the back. The title page of each story in the journal is headed by a maze segment labeled with numbers leading to the first pages of other stories.
Jason Shiga's father, Seiji Shiga, was an animator who worked on the 1964 Rankin-Bass production Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 371 reviews
March 29, 2012
I suffer from a perhaps strange inability to watch Ben Stiller movies. It's not so much Ben Stiller himself that I find unwatchable. He's perfectly capable of entertaining me or playing a role that I can enjoy. The affecting issue seems to be more with the type of character for which he is usually cast. Awkward characters. Men with little ability to suss out their social environment in a facile manner. Reality Bites. Meet the Parents. That sort of thing. Films that stock and trade on Stiller's ability to play a truly, madly, deeply embarrassing schlub.
When I encounter characters doing terribly embarrassing things, I become physically agitated. Or at least my psychological agitation translates into a physical experience. I shake, cringe, and sweat. I start to become nauseated. I feel the same while watching Michael Scott interact with anyone outside of the employees of Dunder Mifflin, Scranton. After watching the "Scott's Tots" episode of The Office, I made a deal with my wife that I would leave the room whenever Michael Scott did anything and she would call me back when it was over. And I wasn't always this way so much. I think it's getting worse as I grow older.
This is the long way about to explain my issue with Jason Shiga's Empire State: A Love Story (Or Not). Every critic comes to a piece of work from the context in which he or she lives. Every last one of us. You'll find no such thing as an objective opinion on a book or movie or piece of music. Our tastes govern us and our tastes are in turn governed by our experiences. We can employ certain means to help mitigate the effect of our tastes when we're aware of these kinds of imbalances, but we can never neutralize completely — and who would want to? Nostalgia is a big hurdle for a lot of people, rendering them incapable of seeing a book as it is. For me, the hurdle is watching a character suffer self-wounding humiliation over and over, never recognizing how it is by their own actions that their lives remain in torment. I can almost not judge a book or movie sensibly if that kind of thing is present.
But I try. I do.
The savvy among you will have discerned that there is something embarrassing going on in Empire State, perhaps some moment of shame or painful humiliation. It's worse, really. The book's central premise, the plot from start to finish, is that moment of humiliation. Our protagonist is awkward and socially oblivious — and even while feeling the initial pangs of shame, continues doggedly upon the horrible, scarring course he's laid out for himself. The book, for me, was painful from beginning to end. I had to read the short work in discreet chunks in order to even finish it. Apparently, for some of the reviewers who have lauded the work, the book was not difficult to take in at all. It is primarily for this reason that I make you aware of my... condition — to give you reason, should you need it, to entirely dismiss my review on grounds of mental instability. If your name is Jason Shiga, this may be the best tack.
[Man, I remember not knowing what Perl is. Not really, I don't. But I can imagine my life was probably more carefree. I was also a newly minted bachelor. Oh Perl, you kidder, you cad.]
Empire State is the story of a boy who likes a girl who moves away to a city essentially a million miles away from Oakland, where the boy remains. A better title may have been Damn the Middle States. The tough part is that while the boy has his crush (as boys will do), the girl remains either oblivious or aware-but-uninterested (my guess is the latter). That's painful and sad, but a pretty common version of the tale. Where it gets tough is watching the boy pin his hopes on a girl who won't ever have him, knowing this is the case, and witnessing him continue a hapless pursuit of her despite there being no indications that anything will come of it. He imagines some sort of Sleepless in Seattle meet-up at the Empire State Building but does so based not even on the flimsiest evidence. Every step he makes closer to that fateful moment and the inevitable lingering shame brought me a little bit closer to total mental collapse.
I wanted to yell at him, to shake him, to pour sense into him. But a kid like that? There's no reasoning with him. He has to take his knocks and hopefully learn some lesson or another. It may be the lesson he learns is to seek a better reading of the signs before embarking on a journey of romantic proportions. More likely, the lesson he'll take away is that women are fickle, inscrutable creatures and are to be pursued wholly apart from reason and that the arbitrary hand of fate is to be accepted for whichever way it chooses to fall. I imagine this boy is well on his way to becoming Oscar Wao. And that's a hard thing to watch.
Look. I've made my own mistakes and miscalculations. I'm not boasting over how superior I am and how I can't possibly relate to this kid. I can — and that may be why I feel so deeply the humiliation that he himself should have felt even before he began his journey. I understand this kid, but that doesn't mean I want to read about him.
But apart from that (apart from my personal demons), was the story any good? I don't think that it was. It may in some way have been realistic, but it wasn't really compelling or interestingly composed. Neither the boy nor the girl was engagingly crafted and I found no reason that either of them should attract the attentions of either readers or potential suitors. It's not so much that every book has to feature likable protagonists, but in a love story it's almost essential. And neither is it that these two are as despicable as the leads in Conversations with Other Women, but more that they're just flat, uninteresting people with not much to recommend them. The boy has a not-quite-developed fascination with mylaring books, but that on its own is not enough to round him out as a character.
The art is acceptable but nothing worth praising. It's simplistic and the emotion of scenes is often lost in the blank faces of its characters. The most exciting thing about Empire State is its use of colour, but even this isn't spectacular (not that I believe it was intended to be and it would be unfair perhaps to put too much weight on the book's central visual gimmick). The story is told in two parts, cyan and magenta — with cyan repping for the present and magenta standing in for the past. The colors twirl back and forth as Shiga moves the narrative with flashes back and forward and back again. And when the two periods reach a state of intertwine, we get a blend of cyan and magenta. It's a technique we saw somewhat in Asterios Polyp — only there, new colours emerge to visually describe the protagonist's psychological growth. In Empire State, the colour choices appear to be arbitrarily chosen. This may not be the case, but I couldn't figure out a purpose specifying cyan/present and magenta/past.
At the end of the day, it's difficult to distinguish my evaluation of Empire State as a visual/literary object from my strong prejudices against experiences of this kind. I'm pretty certain that I wouldn't have enjoyed Empire State even if I were someone who could endure character humiliation as easily as I endure characters who have hair and wear clothes, but you'll have to take that for what it's worth. Perhaps it was unfair for me to review the work at all, but on that note, perhaps it's unfair for any critic to review a work, governed as we are by our circumstances, beliefs, histories, moods, and tastes. I trust that you as the reader will be able to discern whether Shiga's book is something you wish to pursue. After all, plenty of others have enjoyed it.
_____________________
[Review courtesy of Good Ok Bad]
August 4, 2017
This was cute - and Sara reminds me of myself in an "I'm over this shit" way. :)
June 7, 2014
I wonder: do you have to be able to identify with Jimmy's clueless, Nice Guy pursuit of a girl who really does just want to be friends with him to truly enjoy this book? It just made me sad. Not for Jimmy, but for Sara, who thought she had a friend in Jimmy.
March 4, 2013
Loved it - really well told and put together comic book about growing up and unrequited love. Full review here!
September 4, 2016
I love that this is a book in which awkwardness is not overcome for the sake of a happily ever after fairytale ending. This is less a happily ever after fairytale and more of a cautionary tale, though I am not sure what it is cautioning against.
Jimmy is in love with his best friend Sara and feels the need to, once and for all, now that Sara is so many miles away (she moved from CA, where Jimmy still lives, to NY, where Jimmy decides to visit) share that information with her. Jimmy's cross country trip comes after a long friendship in which there is perhaps an unspoken understanding that Jimmy is crushed out on Sara and that she is not crushed out on him. But little moments of warmth and intimacy between them confuse Jimmy.
Is Sara the bad guy in this book? Is there some way she is being unfair? Whose responsibility is it to state clearly the truth of their dynamic? Would open communication earlier on in their friendship have kept Jimmy from years of romantic torment, or would things have gone on like this regardless?
How many of us find ourselves in these strange dynamics which are to some degree fueled by what is unspoken, holding that delicate and often hurtful balance -- one person giving another that little crumb of romantic hope; and that same person receiving just enough romantic attention from a friend that it feels good, but not wanting more. Or maybe that so-called crumb of hope is entirely fabricated by the person with the stronger romantic feelings (because it is possible for a friend to have romantic feelings for another friend, but not the kind that they want to 'act on' by shifting the relationship from a romantic friendship to a fully-fledged romantic relationship.)
So I guess it's all pretty complicated. Because friendship is often nearer to romantic love than we culturally prefer to acknowledge, and often more confusing for all parties involved.
I think Sara is pretty clear in her way that she's not romantically interested in Jimmy, and at the same time, I can't blame Jimmy his fantasies, as his friendship with Sara has a kind of intimacy that has a romantic quality. How is it that two people can share so much with each other over time, have so much in common, and yet one person feels that extra little spark of capital R romance, the possibility of sexual connection, and the other doesn't? And often the fantasy that goes along with this disparity in feeling is that a grand gesture or confession or proclamation could be the bold move that shifts the balance for the other person involved.
So, maybe that is what Jimmy was going for. Or perhaps he just didn't want to live this lie anymore, and in that case, the gesture is one of letting go. I can relate to the semi-fantastical hope and also to the need to say something out loud that has been in the air and unspoken for a very long time.
It's refreshing to read a comic book in which the art is both gorgeous and unremarkable, the protagonists are not that fake awful cartoon plastic pretty. There is a bit of Jeffrey brown in here, as so much of his writing is about awkward love semi-disasters, and there is a touch of the grotesque and the rough-around the edges cartooning. But Shiga's book has the beautiful cityscapes and dreamy inking (color coded according to narrative time) and the format (a bigger book, a heavier artifact) that is all its own.
Some of the awkwardness in here is even a bit awkward for me, and I'm still trying to make sense of the gender dynamics and some of the dating conversations and the Jewish girl not interested in Asian guy dynamics. I considered giving it a 4, but for now I am sticking with a 3-star thing. I look forward to reading more of Shiga's work!!
Jimmy is in love with his best friend Sara and feels the need to, once and for all, now that Sara is so many miles away (she moved from CA, where Jimmy still lives, to NY, where Jimmy decides to visit) share that information with her. Jimmy's cross country trip comes after a long friendship in which there is perhaps an unspoken understanding that Jimmy is crushed out on Sara and that she is not crushed out on him. But little moments of warmth and intimacy between them confuse Jimmy.
Is Sara the bad guy in this book? Is there some way she is being unfair? Whose responsibility is it to state clearly the truth of their dynamic? Would open communication earlier on in their friendship have kept Jimmy from years of romantic torment, or would things have gone on like this regardless?
How many of us find ourselves in these strange dynamics which are to some degree fueled by what is unspoken, holding that delicate and often hurtful balance -- one person giving another that little crumb of romantic hope; and that same person receiving just enough romantic attention from a friend that it feels good, but not wanting more. Or maybe that so-called crumb of hope is entirely fabricated by the person with the stronger romantic feelings (because it is possible for a friend to have romantic feelings for another friend, but not the kind that they want to 'act on' by shifting the relationship from a romantic friendship to a fully-fledged romantic relationship.)
So I guess it's all pretty complicated. Because friendship is often nearer to romantic love than we culturally prefer to acknowledge, and often more confusing for all parties involved.
I think Sara is pretty clear in her way that she's not romantically interested in Jimmy, and at the same time, I can't blame Jimmy his fantasies, as his friendship with Sara has a kind of intimacy that has a romantic quality. How is it that two people can share so much with each other over time, have so much in common, and yet one person feels that extra little spark of capital R romance, the possibility of sexual connection, and the other doesn't? And often the fantasy that goes along with this disparity in feeling is that a grand gesture or confession or proclamation could be the bold move that shifts the balance for the other person involved.
So, maybe that is what Jimmy was going for. Or perhaps he just didn't want to live this lie anymore, and in that case, the gesture is one of letting go. I can relate to the semi-fantastical hope and also to the need to say something out loud that has been in the air and unspoken for a very long time.
It's refreshing to read a comic book in which the art is both gorgeous and unremarkable, the protagonists are not that fake awful cartoon plastic pretty. There is a bit of Jeffrey brown in here, as so much of his writing is about awkward love semi-disasters, and there is a touch of the grotesque and the rough-around the edges cartooning. But Shiga's book has the beautiful cityscapes and dreamy inking (color coded according to narrative time) and the format (a bigger book, a heavier artifact) that is all its own.
Some of the awkwardness in here is even a bit awkward for me, and I'm still trying to make sense of the gender dynamics and some of the dating conversations and the Jewish girl not interested in Asian guy dynamics. I considered giving it a 4, but for now I am sticking with a 3-star thing. I look forward to reading more of Shiga's work!!
August 16, 2011
I forgot to mention that the part where he's showing a real web programmer his website, and he said he coded it all in Notepad....lol funny... but only to people who realize the ridiculousness of that. He wants to be a designer, but has the education and ability of a 7th grader.
cute story of a not worldly-wise 25 yr. old from Oakland traveling to New York.
Some GN's tend to end in a silly way, but this one actually wraps up pretty well.
cute story of a not worldly-wise 25 yr. old from Oakland traveling to New York.
Some GN's tend to end in a silly way, but this one actually wraps up pretty well.
May 3, 2021
Really enjoyed this short and sadly sweet graphic novel about 25-year old Jimmy's impromptu cross-country bus trip to visit the best friend he didn't realize he'd miss so much. I resonated with his imposter syndrome as a young adult who still doesn't feel as grown up as he'd expected, and his quiet sorrow of unrequited love. In a nice melancholy mood right now thanks to this one. I also so liked Shiga's artwork, layout and the color-coded timelines.
November 28, 2011
Jason Shiga's people are not traditionally beautiful. Which is nice. For once. For once, we read a love story featuring people who don't look like they sprouted from a magazine ad. Love for the normals. Whatever.
This is the story of a library worker (loved the detailed explanation of "Mylaring" books) who lives with his mother, and his relationship with a good friend who moves to New York. And his subsequent bus ride to meet her, aspiring to traditions of grand romance.
And here's the thing. Shiga's people aren't pretty, but his landscapes are fucking gorgeous. Anytime he puts work into a cityscape, a building, a hill, a tree, a fecking couch, I want to have it tattooed on my... body somewhere.
Also, I dig the way he lays out his panels. He makes no effort to fill the page unless he damn well pleases, letting the gaps between, sizes of, and levels around the panels fill in beats, trails of conversation, and necessity. Definitely helps to be aware of Meanwhile: Pick Any Path, his most popular other work, which is Choose Your Own Adventure in comic form. I like how the gaps on his pages can be seen as doorways into other reactions, choices, and coincidences.
Also, his use of color rules.
So yeah, I dug it. He's not my be-all-end-all-rocks-my-world-all-the-way-around, but I dug it. And I admire it. And I want a tattoo of his drawing of the Oakland Public Library.
P.S. Though not covered in detail, I enjoyed the depiction of riding the bus across amerika. Dirty and real and a pain the ass.
This is the story of a library worker (loved the detailed explanation of "Mylaring" books) who lives with his mother, and his relationship with a good friend who moves to New York. And his subsequent bus ride to meet her, aspiring to traditions of grand romance.
And here's the thing. Shiga's people aren't pretty, but his landscapes are fucking gorgeous. Anytime he puts work into a cityscape, a building, a hill, a tree, a fecking couch, I want to have it tattooed on my... body somewhere.
Also, I dig the way he lays out his panels. He makes no effort to fill the page unless he damn well pleases, letting the gaps between, sizes of, and levels around the panels fill in beats, trails of conversation, and necessity. Definitely helps to be aware of Meanwhile: Pick Any Path, his most popular other work, which is Choose Your Own Adventure in comic form. I like how the gaps on his pages can be seen as doorways into other reactions, choices, and coincidences.
Also, his use of color rules.
So yeah, I dug it. He's not my be-all-end-all-rocks-my-world-all-the-way-around, but I dug it. And I admire it. And I want a tattoo of his drawing of the Oakland Public Library.
P.S. Though not covered in detail, I enjoyed the depiction of riding the bus across amerika. Dirty and real and a pain the ass.
January 1, 2016
I found this graphic novel to be incredibly underwhelming. From the grand design on the cover to the grand title evoking the ideas of a Love Story and the Empire State I created a reasonable expectation that this book would have a lot more to it. If anything I feel like it was grossly mis-marketed.
There were a lot of things in this in that I really disliked. These things includes the likes of the characters, the character design, the plot and the tone. It wasn't that all these aspects were inherently bad, but none of these them really worked. The plot mostly consists of a guy who is going nowhere and really likes a girl who just wants to be his friend. The characters are all written as static and flat, which also describes their design.
These things made the experience of reading this book rather meh, but that isn't to say that there wasn't any positives. The use of colour and the design of the backgrounds are both fantastic. I would be interested to see what could happen if the art was applied to a different story.
There were a lot of things in this in that I really disliked. These things includes the likes of the characters, the character design, the plot and the tone. It wasn't that all these aspects were inherently bad, but none of these them really worked. The plot mostly consists of a guy who is going nowhere and really likes a girl who just wants to be his friend. The characters are all written as static and flat, which also describes their design.
These things made the experience of reading this book rather meh, but that isn't to say that there wasn't any positives. The use of colour and the design of the backgrounds are both fantastic. I would be interested to see what could happen if the art was applied to a different story.
June 3, 2016
Sometimes you gotta chase the girl
After Sara leaves for New York, Jimmy, who never revealed his true feelings, hops on a six day bus ride to see her. To be romantic, he asks her to meet him on the empire state building. But due to a communication issue, Sara doesn't show, instead she waits for him at home with her new boyfriend. Can Jimmy somehow win Sara's heart - or is he too deep into the friend zone?
The illustrations are handdrawn and I need to praise the whole concept of a plus size female protagonist (rare in graphic novels). However, Sara and Jimmy's relationship just seems awkward. Mostly Sara just chats along about her relationships, while Jimmy pretends to understand - other times Jimmy just talks about nothing, while Sara interprets it as a cry for help.
A great example of how we must never rush relationships and what is meant to be, just is.
After Sara leaves for New York, Jimmy, who never revealed his true feelings, hops on a six day bus ride to see her. To be romantic, he asks her to meet him on the empire state building. But due to a communication issue, Sara doesn't show, instead she waits for him at home with her new boyfriend. Can Jimmy somehow win Sara's heart - or is he too deep into the friend zone?
The illustrations are handdrawn and I need to praise the whole concept of a plus size female protagonist (rare in graphic novels). However, Sara and Jimmy's relationship just seems awkward. Mostly Sara just chats along about her relationships, while Jimmy pretends to understand - other times Jimmy just talks about nothing, while Sara interprets it as a cry for help.
A great example of how we must never rush relationships and what is meant to be, just is.
September 10, 2013
Have you ever wanted to experience an Indie "mumblecore" romance film in graphic novel form?
Good news! This is the graphic novel for you. It features introverted, nebbish-y protagonists, a low-stakes story with an unsatisfying resolution, and an empty feeling of entropy all throughout.
Do you want to know more?
The story focuses on Jimmy, an Asian college grad who works at a public library in his hometown of Oakland, California. He has no idea what to do with his life. He programs html (poorly) in his spare time. He does strange things like time traffic light cycles to see if pressing the crossing button has any effect. Unsurprisingly, Jimmy has only one friend.
Sara is a snarky bookish type, who is moving to New York to pursue an internship at a publishing house. It is as she tells this to Jimmy that he realizes he loves her. Or doesn't know what to do without her because he has no other human connections other than his mother, whom he still lives with.
So Jimmy decides to go to New York and sweep Sara off her feet, or at least get it off his chest. He has a short adventure in New York, and then
This book was, as I said above, unsatisfying and unlikable. The characters are unimpressive and uncharismatic, the story is low-stakes and dry, and the art style is, while pretty at parts, not enough to make up for the story's flaws.
A bit about the art style: It is simple, thick lined, and monochromatic, either in rose-pink (when in Oakland) or blue and white (when in NY). His style of illustration is well-suited to buildings and to a lesser extent landscapes, but his characters lack definition and flair. The color conceit feels clever at first, but nothing is done with it, and it feels like the author should have worked longer on developing the story and art style to bring this book up to snuff.
Good news! This is the graphic novel for you. It features introverted, nebbish-y protagonists, a low-stakes story with an unsatisfying resolution, and an empty feeling of entropy all throughout.
Do you want to know more?
The story focuses on Jimmy, an Asian college grad who works at a public library in his hometown of Oakland, California. He has no idea what to do with his life. He programs html (poorly) in his spare time. He does strange things like time traffic light cycles to see if pressing the crossing button has any effect. Unsurprisingly, Jimmy has only one friend.
Sara is a snarky bookish type, who is moving to New York to pursue an internship at a publishing house. It is as she tells this to Jimmy that he realizes he loves her. Or doesn't know what to do without her because he has no other human connections other than his mother, whom he still lives with.
So Jimmy decides to go to New York and sweep Sara off her feet, or at least get it off his chest. He has a short adventure in New York, and then
This book was, as I said above, unsatisfying and unlikable. The characters are unimpressive and uncharismatic, the story is low-stakes and dry, and the art style is, while pretty at parts, not enough to make up for the story's flaws.
A bit about the art style: It is simple, thick lined, and monochromatic, either in rose-pink (when in Oakland) or blue and white (when in NY). His style of illustration is well-suited to buildings and to a lesser extent landscapes, but his characters lack definition and flair. The color conceit feels clever at first, but nothing is done with it, and it feels like the author should have worked longer on developing the story and art style to bring this book up to snuff.
May 14, 2011
Jason is a young employee of the public library in Oakland, a real whiz with the process of wrapping Mylar around the books. He has never left the city and has dinner with his parents once a week. He doesn't have a bank account, rather signs his checks over to his mom and receives an allowance.
And he thinks he might have it bad for his friend Sara, who moves to Brooklyn to pursue the literary life among the hipsters. She did, afterall, introduce him to the different sorts of coffee drinks a person can purchase.
Jason Shiga's graphic novel "Empire State" stars young Jason, bravely hopping a Greyhound to meet Sara for a "Sleepless in Seattle" moment at the Empire State Building. Taking a bit of a risk in an otherwise pretty safe little life void of adventure. Once he arrives in New York City, a few layers of truth are revealed about these characters. Namely that Jason is super naive and that Sara's mail service is a bit suspect.
His story is told in not-quite linear order, color-coded to indicate flashbacks. It has moments of funny, like when Jason explains to his mother the urban legend behind applying for a job at Google. Unfortunately, I only read this far before buying the book and considered that a good endorsement, even though I wasn't digging the art at all.
I should have listened to my art critique instead of being led astray by single funny panel. The Google part is, unfortunately, the only part of the story that exceeds "Meh."
And he thinks he might have it bad for his friend Sara, who moves to Brooklyn to pursue the literary life among the hipsters. She did, afterall, introduce him to the different sorts of coffee drinks a person can purchase.
Jason Shiga's graphic novel "Empire State" stars young Jason, bravely hopping a Greyhound to meet Sara for a "Sleepless in Seattle" moment at the Empire State Building. Taking a bit of a risk in an otherwise pretty safe little life void of adventure. Once he arrives in New York City, a few layers of truth are revealed about these characters. Namely that Jason is super naive and that Sara's mail service is a bit suspect.
His story is told in not-quite linear order, color-coded to indicate flashbacks. It has moments of funny, like when Jason explains to his mother the urban legend behind applying for a job at Google. Unfortunately, I only read this far before buying the book and considered that a good endorsement, even though I wasn't digging the art at all.
I should have listened to my art critique instead of being led astray by single funny panel. The Google part is, unfortunately, the only part of the story that exceeds "Meh."
July 30, 2017
"You were right about the annoying hipsters here, too. The worst are the ones who complain about all the other annoying hipsters while not realizing that they themselves are the annoying hipsters."
Maybe Jason should stick with what he's good at.... The Demon series!
I'm not sure if I have to be brainless to enjoy this or be an annoying hater of larger cities.
The best thing about this is the cover!!
Maybe Jason should stick with what he's good at.... The Demon series!
I'm not sure if I have to be brainless to enjoy this or be an annoying hater of larger cities.
The best thing about this is the cover!!
March 24, 2025
The detours we take on the road of life when we are young...heartwarming story about Jimmy and his search to find love and happiness. I think we all look back and wonder about 'fork in the road' that we take; at the time it may seem to be the best choice. But it is human nature to look back and question what we did - sometime leading to life changing answers.
September 11, 2011
Although I love the melancholy tone and the alternating timeline was interesting, I found myself rolling my eyes at most of the humor.
Cute but easily forgettable.
Cute but easily forgettable.
January 21, 2023
Nice short graphic novel about a young man who travels to NYC (from Oakland via Greyhound bus) to make a romantic gesture towards his friend who moved there a while back.
At first, I wasn't sure I could read through the overwhelming red color, but I got into the groove pretty quickly. For such a short story, the timeline is jumpy in parts and would benefit from some time markers such as "two years ago," "today," etc. I thought the switch between red and blue pallete was an indicator, but it wasn't consistent.
Read via Hoopla on mobile phone. Thanks, library!
At first, I wasn't sure I could read through the overwhelming red color, but I got into the groove pretty quickly. For such a short story, the timeline is jumpy in parts and would benefit from some time markers such as "two years ago," "today," etc. I thought the switch between red and blue pallete was an indicator, but it wasn't consistent.
Read via Hoopla on mobile phone. Thanks, library!
May 12, 2011
3.5 stars. My crush on Jason Shiga continues. This one was more melancholy and reflective than his other works, which are more like elaborate puzzles than graphic novels. Unrequited love story of two slacker 20-something friends living on opposite coasts -- total Adrian Tomine territory, I know, but Shiga's love story (or not) struck me as much more sincere and painfully real (and funny). If you've ever done something incredibly impulsive and poorly thought out because of a crush that's way out of your league, you can relate to this story. I loved Shiga's use of color to signify the tense (past or present) and the way he showed characters interrupting each other by drawing the word bubbles on top of each other and blocking out parts of a sentences. Plus the main character works in a library and there is a two-page spread on the proper technique for Mylar-ing book covers. NERDY love.
May 9, 2011
I bet that nobody that meets Jason Shiga doesn't like Jason Shiga. He just comes off as a sweet guy, a math geek working as a page in the Oakland Public Library, who is also a comics and puzzle savant. Empire State is his first full-length adult graphic novel, a little story about a naive 25-year-old Asian guy who works as a page at the Oakland Public Library. In the story, Jimmy is sort of secretly in love with his best friend Sara. When Sara moves to New York City to work in publishing and despise Williamsburg hipsters, Jimmy follows her out for a visit. Realistic, understated dialogue and atmospheric landscapes contribute to the low-key mood of this gentle, funny, sweet story.
April 26, 2012
I liked this a lot. The drawings of buidings are amazing and make me want to sit in a big city and draw all the sconces and finials and windows and windows and windows. The story is sweet and unfolds at just the right pace. The drawings of the people pot me off a bit at first cos they kindof look like fisher price little people but I got over it.
June 25, 2011
Jason Shiga has done it again! A great, funny read that even got me a little choked up. This book will most likely appeal to a broader audience than his others, which is good. More people should be exposed to Shiga!
May 13, 2011
Meh. Shiga's artwork is appealing, even if the story isn't.
April 16, 2016
This is a sad, bittersweet book about the protagonist Jimmy's thwarted affection for Sara. The letter he writes to her that she doesn't receive in time for his proposed rendezvous at the Empire State building, conveys that he is ready to change his life to live near her, that she means that much to him. He has fallen in love with her - on some level - but his life is so comfortably encapsulated between his job at the library, his weekly visits to his mom, and his other interests, that he cannot drag himself out of his routine to make a move, or express his affection for Sara, before it's too late and Sara has moved to NY.
The drawing style is unique and conveys a lot of information despite the simplification of the human form - into a child-like jelly-bean like form, which somehow suits the plaintive, rather child-like level of interaction of Jimmy with the world. Jimmy is fine in the library; he's probably happier with books than interacting with the real world, or risking getting hurt in a romantic relationship.
One sad scene is that of his mom trying to set him up with an Asian female. The "date" is a bust - with the girl actually dumping him at a cinema, promising to return after he's seen the movie, so they can return home together, where her mom is visiting with his mom as their kids supposedly get to know one another on the movie date. On this "date" Jimmy was dumped by the cynical, furious female, who had not been told it was a set-up, even before the date began.
Jimmy is a nerd but not an altogether unhappy one. Sara has moved on - met someone, gotten a challenging job in NY, rented an apartment and so forth. Jimmy is prepared to take a step into adulthood - takes a bus to NY, possibly has in mind proposing to Sara, but things do not turn out as planned. I'll leave it at that since to say more would spoil the narrative for anyone who might to read it.
This book was significant for me - as are most "love story" or "romantic entanglement" books given my own saga the last few years. Certainly, I could identify with Jimmy's elation, and sense of purpose in an otherwise purposeless life once he has fallen in love and is certain Sara is the girl for him. The sadness and return to randomness, or purposelessness afterwards is also recognizable - although Sara at least nobly bestows a kiss and hug to Jimmy at the airport at the very end of the novel. It's obviously not enough to lift Jimmy out of the undoubtedly tremendous depression he's about to plunge into but at least he will still have the comforting routine of his job and life in Oakland - and the hope that maybe Sara will return and they can at least resume the friendship they once had, before he tried to change the friendship into a romance.
I thought the author did a good job in conveying salient details of scenes in his drawings and the color scheme - using a separate monochrome palette for each chapter - was also effective. The dialog was perceptive, maybe not as sensitive or nuanced as Tomine (for example) but still conveyed complex characterization in a few words. Obviously, the book is a product of our era and so many of the cultural references are recognizable and contribute to our understanding of the characters' outlook and so forth. Is Sara turning into a yuppie by dating the evidently successful IT guy? Who knows? Will she remain gritty and humble, like Oakland, or be lured into a flashy lifestyle in NY? Will she lose her authenticity in the big city - will she ever really return to Oakland, as she predicts - or has Jimmy basically lost her forever? These are unanswerable questions - hypotheticals that inform the last few anguished scenes, of the what-ifs of life - as the reality that their hoped-for relationship probably never will be, and why it never will be.
Jimmy after all is not like worldly Sara, and maybe it is Sara having been around the corner, and having developed a certain cynicism that attracts Jimmy to Sara, since Jimmy is still in many ways child-like. Perhaps Jimmy feels Sara will be his gateway to adult life - that if he only was with Sara, everything would be different, he'd be able to climb the highest mountain, as he says in his confessional letter to her. Sara though probably views him like the 400 lb craigslist date, that became a joke for her afterwards even though she felt sorry for him on the date. Of course they are good friends and she doesn't mock Jimmy but clearly, Sara is in another world, on a level of sophistication that Jimmy can only imagine. OTOH, Jimmy - an avatar of the author, obviously - has advanced mathematical knowledge and other similar nerd-like skills/information, which always impresses Sara. But Jimmy's knowledge isn't translatable to the things that seem to matter to Sara, like a high-paying job, or ambition, a career, the trappings of success, being a grown-up with opinions about things, critiques of the world and so forth. Jimmy seems to live in a world of his own, and he can only imagine what "real life" might be like. The key to being an adult might have been Sara, she might have meant more to him than he realized - at least in having fallen in love and feeling the pain of a love that cannot be, Jimmy has at least and at last experienced a grown-up feeling. Will it make a difference in his life, ultimately? Actually, the book has a wistful and sad ending; it may be that some nerds can never really escape their preference for intellectual pursuits, and this tendency more than anything else may have been the reason Sara could not view him as a romantic partner. Jimmy is more attached to knowledge than to people, and that aspect of Jimmy - no matter how nice and "controllable" he might be (and Sara had indicated she was looking for a romantic partner she could control) the seeming passivity and tendency to be content with knowledge or information alone - was probably the aspect of Jimmy that more or less canceled the deal for Sara.
Jimmy hasn't kept up with the latest advances in web design, we learn in the course of the book, but he still impresses Sara with references to math principles that are unknown to her (or to the average person) - potentially, these references to advanced knowledge should wow her, and they do, but in the absence of the "mystery" ingredient in Jimmy's personality, the will to break out of his studious shell, and maybe have a phase like Sara did of being wild, he will remain an un-interesting nerd to Sara. Maybe things will eventually change - maybe the experience of NY will change Jimmy, and maybe Sara will see Jimmy as an authentic potential lover, perhaps the man she was looking for, at least not a phony hipster, and with the potential to advance in life. But as things are left, Jimmy is set to resume his previous existence at the library and the apartment - but without Sara there in Oakland and without even the illusion of a possible relationship Sara at some future time. Things did not end on a negative note in NY, but as long as Jimmy remains in his cocoon, it is unlikely Sara will be interested in him as a romantic partner. It seems that both Jimmy and Sara are fated to continue their search for partners - and despite their friendship, romance, at least for the time being, is not in the cards for these friends.
The drawing style is unique and conveys a lot of information despite the simplification of the human form - into a child-like jelly-bean like form, which somehow suits the plaintive, rather child-like level of interaction of Jimmy with the world. Jimmy is fine in the library; he's probably happier with books than interacting with the real world, or risking getting hurt in a romantic relationship.
One sad scene is that of his mom trying to set him up with an Asian female. The "date" is a bust - with the girl actually dumping him at a cinema, promising to return after he's seen the movie, so they can return home together, where her mom is visiting with his mom as their kids supposedly get to know one another on the movie date. On this "date" Jimmy was dumped by the cynical, furious female, who had not been told it was a set-up, even before the date began.
Jimmy is a nerd but not an altogether unhappy one. Sara has moved on - met someone, gotten a challenging job in NY, rented an apartment and so forth. Jimmy is prepared to take a step into adulthood - takes a bus to NY, possibly has in mind proposing to Sara, but things do not turn out as planned. I'll leave it at that since to say more would spoil the narrative for anyone who might to read it.
This book was significant for me - as are most "love story" or "romantic entanglement" books given my own saga the last few years. Certainly, I could identify with Jimmy's elation, and sense of purpose in an otherwise purposeless life once he has fallen in love and is certain Sara is the girl for him. The sadness and return to randomness, or purposelessness afterwards is also recognizable - although Sara at least nobly bestows a kiss and hug to Jimmy at the airport at the very end of the novel. It's obviously not enough to lift Jimmy out of the undoubtedly tremendous depression he's about to plunge into but at least he will still have the comforting routine of his job and life in Oakland - and the hope that maybe Sara will return and they can at least resume the friendship they once had, before he tried to change the friendship into a romance.
I thought the author did a good job in conveying salient details of scenes in his drawings and the color scheme - using a separate monochrome palette for each chapter - was also effective. The dialog was perceptive, maybe not as sensitive or nuanced as Tomine (for example) but still conveyed complex characterization in a few words. Obviously, the book is a product of our era and so many of the cultural references are recognizable and contribute to our understanding of the characters' outlook and so forth. Is Sara turning into a yuppie by dating the evidently successful IT guy? Who knows? Will she remain gritty and humble, like Oakland, or be lured into a flashy lifestyle in NY? Will she lose her authenticity in the big city - will she ever really return to Oakland, as she predicts - or has Jimmy basically lost her forever? These are unanswerable questions - hypotheticals that inform the last few anguished scenes, of the what-ifs of life - as the reality that their hoped-for relationship probably never will be, and why it never will be.
Jimmy after all is not like worldly Sara, and maybe it is Sara having been around the corner, and having developed a certain cynicism that attracts Jimmy to Sara, since Jimmy is still in many ways child-like. Perhaps Jimmy feels Sara will be his gateway to adult life - that if he only was with Sara, everything would be different, he'd be able to climb the highest mountain, as he says in his confessional letter to her. Sara though probably views him like the 400 lb craigslist date, that became a joke for her afterwards even though she felt sorry for him on the date. Of course they are good friends and she doesn't mock Jimmy but clearly, Sara is in another world, on a level of sophistication that Jimmy can only imagine. OTOH, Jimmy - an avatar of the author, obviously - has advanced mathematical knowledge and other similar nerd-like skills/information, which always impresses Sara. But Jimmy's knowledge isn't translatable to the things that seem to matter to Sara, like a high-paying job, or ambition, a career, the trappings of success, being a grown-up with opinions about things, critiques of the world and so forth. Jimmy seems to live in a world of his own, and he can only imagine what "real life" might be like. The key to being an adult might have been Sara, she might have meant more to him than he realized - at least in having fallen in love and feeling the pain of a love that cannot be, Jimmy has at least and at last experienced a grown-up feeling. Will it make a difference in his life, ultimately? Actually, the book has a wistful and sad ending; it may be that some nerds can never really escape their preference for intellectual pursuits, and this tendency more than anything else may have been the reason Sara could not view him as a romantic partner. Jimmy is more attached to knowledge than to people, and that aspect of Jimmy - no matter how nice and "controllable" he might be (and Sara had indicated she was looking for a romantic partner she could control) the seeming passivity and tendency to be content with knowledge or information alone - was probably the aspect of Jimmy that more or less canceled the deal for Sara.
Jimmy hasn't kept up with the latest advances in web design, we learn in the course of the book, but he still impresses Sara with references to math principles that are unknown to her (or to the average person) - potentially, these references to advanced knowledge should wow her, and they do, but in the absence of the "mystery" ingredient in Jimmy's personality, the will to break out of his studious shell, and maybe have a phase like Sara did of being wild, he will remain an un-interesting nerd to Sara. Maybe things will eventually change - maybe the experience of NY will change Jimmy, and maybe Sara will see Jimmy as an authentic potential lover, perhaps the man she was looking for, at least not a phony hipster, and with the potential to advance in life. But as things are left, Jimmy is set to resume his previous existence at the library and the apartment - but without Sara there in Oakland and without even the illusion of a possible relationship Sara at some future time. Things did not end on a negative note in NY, but as long as Jimmy remains in his cocoon, it is unlikely Sara will be interested in him as a romantic partner. It seems that both Jimmy and Sara are fated to continue their search for partners - and despite their friendship, romance, at least for the time being, is not in the cards for these friends.
August 25, 2018
I picked up this cute graphic novel at a comic arts festival and read it through in one short sitting.
Empire State is not as good as I was hoping, but it's not a bad story either. It follow the story of the narrator who decides to take the bus to New York City for the first time "to see about a girl" that he has been friends with for several years and has feelings for. While I didn't think either the girl or the narrator's characters were particularly strong or well fleshed out, I related strongly to the narrator really putting himself out there and going the extra mile and the other person not really knowing what was happening and it resulted in a let down.
I liked the way Shiga had the story move backwards and forwards in time and illustrated this in color. I thought it was a creative way to tell the story and it helped reinforce the theme that the narrator was having a lot of time to contemplate seeing Sara again and what their friendship had been like. It worked well.
Nice graphic novel. I wouldn't go out of my way to read this, but if you come across it then it's worth the short time it takes to get through.
Empire State is not as good as I was hoping, but it's not a bad story either. It follow the story of the narrator who decides to take the bus to New York City for the first time "to see about a girl" that he has been friends with for several years and has feelings for. While I didn't think either the girl or the narrator's characters were particularly strong or well fleshed out, I related strongly to the narrator really putting himself out there and going the extra mile and the other person not really knowing what was happening and it resulted in a let down.
I liked the way Shiga had the story move backwards and forwards in time and illustrated this in color. I thought it was a creative way to tell the story and it helped reinforce the theme that the narrator was having a lot of time to contemplate seeing Sara again and what their friendship had been like. It worked well.
Nice graphic novel. I wouldn't go out of my way to read this, but if you come across it then it's worth the short time it takes to get through.
March 17, 2017
A fairly gentle story this, about a young man in Oakland, CA whose best friend has moved to Brooklyn. He goes to visit her -- clearly thinking that they will become a couple -- and when he gets there, he discovers that she already has a boyfriend and that maybe he doesn't know her quite as well as he thought he did. But that's OK, because at the same time, he discovers that the New York City of which he was terrified at first is actually an amazing place.
This book is a quick read, but it's not quickly paced; it's something of a window into the lives of two characters and how their friendship has become one-sided without them really realizing it. The book ends on a bittersweet note, leaving the future open. I enjoyed the book's quirky art, which is generally monochrome and shifts every few pages from one dominant color to another, and the nonlinear way the story unfolded.
This book is a quick read, but it's not quickly paced; it's something of a window into the lives of two characters and how their friendship has become one-sided without them really realizing it. The book ends on a bittersweet note, leaving the future open. I enjoyed the book's quirky art, which is generally monochrome and shifts every few pages from one dominant color to another, and the nonlinear way the story unfolded.
January 4, 2024
Interesting graphic novel that I would give 3 stars because I didn't love it or dislike it.
Here are my thoughts:
I thought the style was... interesting.... Definitely took a while to get used to the character design. Found everyone being slouched over all the time as a weird choice that I didn't enjoy. The storyline was interesting, I enjoyed that it jumped around and wasn't linear because it felt similar to telling a story and remembering aspects along the way. The color of red and blue representing different parts of the story was a concept I enjoyed.
Here are my thoughts:
I thought the style was... interesting.... Definitely took a while to get used to the character design. Found everyone being slouched over all the time as a weird choice that I didn't enjoy. The storyline was interesting, I enjoyed that it jumped around and wasn't linear because it felt similar to telling a story and remembering aspects along the way. The color of red and blue representing different parts of the story was a concept I enjoyed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 18, 2020
Saw this on the shelf and decided to grab it and take a chance. A complete miss for me. While I liked the sentiment of friends who almost decide to be more, the story itself was a bore. What’s funny is I think a story like this would resonate for some and has a lot of possibility, yet the author sort of just let it play out without any real heart. Did appreciate the nod to Sleepless in Seattle and An Affair to Remember though! I wouldn't recommend.
November 18, 2023
An unfinished and kinda typical love story (or not) between two friends where one could never tell the girl that he has feelings for her, and they remain being friends until the end of the book. It's a feeling of regret but that's how life is, isn't it? Things happen, and we have to accept it no matter how much regret we feel. Anyway, cute story and illustrations!!!
August 8, 2017
Jason Shiga is definitely becoming a must-read author for me.
This story is probably representative of a lot of people's lives, especially those that talk themselves out of taking the next steps in becoming an adult, those who wait too late.
Great story, quick read, worth picking up.
This story is probably representative of a lot of people's lives, especially those that talk themselves out of taking the next steps in becoming an adult, those who wait too late.
Great story, quick read, worth picking up.
December 27, 2018
The book basically starts off with a long conversation about how fat people are undatable and sad, so there's that. Then it pretty much just follows around the main character as he pines after his best friend and, despite being 25 years old, giggles when someone says the word "fuck". Ha. Ha. Yeah, that's...funny. Real SNL humor here. Iconic. Wow.
The plot is boring and just kind of meanders, which could be fine, but it's paired with an uninteresting main character who lacks any significant personality traits. The artwork is pretty nice, but that's about all I liked in this book. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The plot is boring and just kind of meanders, which could be fine, but it's paired with an uninteresting main character who lacks any significant personality traits. The artwork is pretty nice, but that's about all I liked in this book. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
February 18, 2018
How romantic (or not).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 371 reviews