Brodowski, John – Curio Cabinet #4

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Curio Cabinet #4

If you had told me years ago that one of my favorite things in comics would be the quiet, contemplative moments of Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movies, especially when I never liked them to begin with (even as a teenager when I liked just about every other horror movie), well, I would have thought you were mildly daft.  Then when you add the fact that they’re just a tiny piece of a whole comic of bizarre goodness, it’s a bit much.  The bulk of the issue the melancholy life story of a miner, from a small child all the way up until death.  It’s heartbreaking, even though we know how it’s going to end… except it turns out we have no idea how it’s going to end.  Or should I stick with “I” statements?  It’s not like you’re reading along with me, whoever you are.  Next is Illustrations of the Passions and Episodes in the Life of the Wandering Jew, mammoth two page images that really get ruined a bit by the crease in the center of the page, but what else was the man supposed to do?  They’d make nice prints though, if JB was interested in making such things.  Finally there’s the slow motion showdown between a hunter and just about all the creatures in the forest, or at least that’s what it looked like to me until the surprise ending, but it was silent (like the rest of the book), so open to interpretation.  That means, to those of you who are new around here, that I’m almost certainly interpreting it incorrectly.  It’s another solid issue by JB, and it’s a shame his secret identity keeps him from making more of these, as they’re those rare comics that have a way of sticking with you long after the fact.  That image of Jason floating alone on the lake, for one, is going to be in my brain for a long time…