Knocked Out Loaded. Michael Jantze (Writer & Art). Jantze Studios Publishing (2018)

A very enjoyable, engaging and very funny Comic Art Novelty. Norman Miller is very stressed and frustrated with his life, his wife has had a miscarriage, his best friend is going out with Norm's ex girlfriend after a bitter divorce. Trying to evade his problems Norm goes skiing and has a collision with a tree. Coming to he finds that he has gained a new perspective on his life and starts to re-consider his life.Michael Jantze takes the idea of a man stepping freshly into his life and sidesteps reader expectations with deft skill to allow his wonderful cast speak for themselves.
The plot mechanics are deceptively simple, Norm and Reine are getting an opportunity to recover from the miscarriage and make decisions about their life together without the fear and frustration that was crowding them out. Ford, Norm's best friend and boss at work takes an opportunity to satisfy an urge to settle a old score. they way these two story lines wrap around each other and draw in the rest of the cast as they respond and react to the events is deeply engaging. Norm's parents-in-law respond unexpectedly, complicating Reine's relationship with them even further. Ford's actions have consequence at work for himself and Norm and draw in Norm's ex girlfriend. The action is driven by the natural and credible responses of the cast as they all try to find an equilibrium in rapidly evolving circumstances.
The cast are full of energy and life, they all demand attention from the reader and have developed personalities that shape their responses and actions. Everyone is a credible mix and mess of hopes, fears and intentions. They bring their history with them and cannot evade it. Norm causes confusion because he has stepped away from his history and others respond to this is funny and unpredictable.
The art is a joy. Michael Jantze takes full advantage of the formal framework of a comic strip and the possibilities that it has to play with the conventions. The relationship between the cast and the panels that they inhabit are managed cunningly to shift the story and the cast in very smart ways. The fact that it never feels arc or pointedly meta is a tribute to Michael Jantze's skill, Norm can break the fourth wall and still be wholly immersed in the context.
The visual jokes and set ups are executed with understated skill and superb timing, they give a depth and force to the story by delivering ideas that capture ideas in clever ways. The action is the small change of living and working, vital to those engaged it it, irrelevant to everyone else. Michael Jantze makes the detaiuls of living feel as important to the reader as they are to the cast, the emotional weight is delivered with a light touch that makes it all the more effectiove.
Knocked Out Loaded is a great comic, clever, superbly drawn and thought out, vey funny and with something to say about the importance of the ordinary.