Review by Frank Plowright
Considering what’s happened in the United Kingdom since, there’s a wistful sense about this 2011 hardcover published by the European Commission to promote grants and loans available to young people wanting to set up their own business. These smallish loans are still available to young people unable to raise financing through banks, but not, unfortunately, in the United Kingdom, which left the European Union.
Rudi Miel’s scripts show how the loans apply to four people in different countries. Opening with Alex in Wales wanting to take over a neighbour’s beekeeping business, we then see Nataline transitioning from model to chef, Ivana returning from Cambodia to Italy to set up a clothing firm, and Nora is a nurse among the Roma community in Romania.
Predecessor Take Two featured better stories, but here Miel’s obviously under instruction to be more direct concerning the money source and how to access it. It has to be said, the EU is exceptionally generous in funding Alex’s business producing 800 jars of honey a year. Even considering it premium organic product, it’s going to raise around £4000 a year, from which expenses have to be met. You’d imagine insurance and maintenance on his delivery van would take a hefty cut.
If you’ve ever wondered how Alex Tefenkgi arrived so fully formed as a startling new artist, here you’ll find his early work on Alex’s story, which looks nothing like his later style. It’s looser, and adequate rather than startling. It seems part of the publication ethos is working with new artists, as the biographies of all four indicate them relatively early in their careers. Maud Millecamps has a busy flat and colourful approach with stylised people, and Vanyda is the only survivor from the first collection. Her thick ink lines render people very stiff. It’s South Korean artist You who’s the most impressive on the final story, producing detailed pages showing circumstances better than the other artists and giving her characters a real warmth.
You’s story is also the only one to depart from the formula applied to the remaining content. It promotes how the European Union Healthcare Fund covers the cost of essential medical work among communities where poverty is so ingrained that there’s no money to pay for any health needs.
The opportunity has passed for any UK readers, but funding remains available to residents of countries within the EU, and Jump Start does its job promoting them in a form that can reach out to the otherwise uninformed. Not sold through mainstream online booksellers, copies of Jump Start are still available via the EU bookshop, or you can download the digital version for free.
