'A Real Job' with story and art by Alberto Madrigal is a graphic novel about a young man who moves to a foreign country suddenly.

Javi lives in Spain and suddenly decides to move to Berlin, even though he doesn't speak the language. He wants to pursue his dream of becoming a comic book artist. He gets a job with a big tech company, but finds that he lacks the time and purpose to pursue his dreams.

If my description seems lackluster, so is this graphic novel. There is likely a better way to write this story. It lacked interest for me, which is too bad, because I did really like the art.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

A cute graphic novel with beautiful illustrations. I’m never quite sure how to rate illustrated work, but I really enjoyed this one!

I liked the illustrations and the premise of this graphic novel, but I am confused as to whether or not this is a fictionalized version of the author's life.

Graphic metafiction?

Javi is Spanish and dreams of being a successful graphic novelist.. He relocates to Berlin. Some frames show Javi as a successful graphic novelist; others as a lonely failure living on the breadline, living in a grotty shared flat. Eventually, and after reading other reviews, I twigged that this was parallel timelines, one a dream and the other reality - distinguished by the colour scheme of the frames.

I am sure this is very clever, but I felt it required the reader to make too many connections for too little pay-off. And reading a book about the author writing that book feels self indulgent.

Really not my thing. Sorry.

A young Spanish artist, Javi, quits his "real job" in Spain to move to Berlin where he knows no one and doesn't even speak the language, so that he can work on a graphic novel concept with a friend and try to get it published.
When the publication falls through, Javi is forced to get another "real job" and while everyone is his life is happy about it, because he can finally afford things like rent and groceries, Javi is miserable because his job (though art-related) keeps him so busy he can never draw anything on his own.

An interesting graphic book where the main character moves to Berlin to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a graphic artist and producing his own novel. The illustrations are beautiful, the characters are fun and enjoyable.
I received this ARC from NetGalley and Europe Comics in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the artwork and felt that the sepia tones really worked with the nostalgic and uncertain feel to the story. I found the story itself rather slow and not terribly engaging.

A graphic novel that gives us a peek into an artist's life and the hardships of his career. I really enjoyed the artist's style and especially the colour palette he used in it.

This is a perfectly reasonable graphic novel about a graphic novelist struggling to write a graphic novel – in other words, it's a theme and subject that has been done to death, but remains a pleasant enough inspiration for these personable pages. Here, the biggest advantage is the Euro-pudding approach, with the creator being a Spaniard in Berlin, talking in Italian and wanting to get published in France. People who turn against such self-reflective pieces will struggle with this, though.

"When you live in a country that speaks a language you don't know, you learn a lot. You learn not to complain: too much of a hassle."

This is just one of the many gems that this book doles out. As someone who is living away from her home country for reasons of her own, (& struggling between professional choices with a hard luck) I felt a lot of parallels to the story. It touches upon a lot of themes that are very relevant: a little bit of social media, relationships,
I especially loved the idea of uprooting what others believe is a "safe" life and moving out of the comfort zone in pursuit of something, a theme that repeatedly made its presence felt.
The art and illustration is great- very apt to the narrative and easy on the eye. (really what more do we need in a graphic novel?)

It isn't a perfect plot set-up (I am guessing that is owing to the translation!) but it is a meaningful look at the society which somehow manages to demean artists but also glamorises their struggle.
KISS (Keep it simple, stupid!)

I understood this story on a deeper level. It's a story of a man who is having a crisis of faith in himself as he starts life anew but struggles through it. Pleasant art!

A simple graphic novel telling the story of the life of an artist. Though the artwork was beautiful, I didn't care much for the story. I felt a little bored with it, and almost bailed on it completely. I would still be willing to check out more by the same author, but feel that this one simply wasn't for me.

I have received a much appreciated digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting graphic novel. The characters are enjoyable and the story line is decent. Cool art work in this one.

Cute story about an artist’s life. Sometimes I found it boring and I just wanted to skip pages. The art styles is beautiful

love stories where our main character moves to a new place with out an specific objective in mind, maybe because that was my case and in a way still is.
So I'm a bit bias for that reason, but I really enjoy this graphic novel, I love how the tone of the book is set and how it moves from present to past, and the usage of colour text clouds and the horizontal story lines, I just wish it was a little longer!
Looking forward to read more of his graphic novels.

This is an interesting enough tale of the struggling young artist, but having said that I've pretty much said everything the artist is trying to express. There just isn't that much here apart from a certain low key charm.

A Real Job

An interesting real life story about how the author leaves his country, Spain, and moves to Berlin in order to pursue his desire to be a graphic artist and produce his own book. He gives up his job and all that is familiar in Spain and moves to Germany even though he doesn't speak the language. His friends in Spain can't understand why he is making such a move especially since he doesn't have a job in Berlin.

Life in Berlin is strange and he has to make new friends but he manages to keep his eyes on the prize and his desire to produce this graphic novel with his friend. When the two of them eventually pitch the story of the novel to publishers they are full of hope but things dont go exactly to plan and he then has to find a 'real job' although he still draws in his spare time. It is when he begins to tell his own story that opportunities suddenly emerge.

This is a lovely story all the more so because it is true. The artwork is it's good but I feel that in some places it is difficult to follow the story. I think this might be because I'm reading a translated version. It is still very enjoyable story and shows how the artist has the faith and courage to follow his dreams and to take that risk.

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.