Roger Dahl's Comic Japan

January 12, 2015
After over 20 years of producing the comic strip Zero Gravity in the Japan Times, Dahl has released a best-of compilation. The quasi-autobiographical strip mostly stars Larry and Lily, a fictional American couple who teach English in Tokyo. Dahl mines humorous incidents, such as when he accidentally made a tuna sandwich out of cat food, and when he improperly raked his bonsai tree leaves. The drawing is lively and expressive, and though some of the strips are funny, others trade on stereotypes or tired cultural assumptions. This is a book of smiles, not guffaws, yet the accumulation of strips builds a picture of an expat lifestyle, with its attendant loneliness, confusion, and thrills.