Optical Sloth

Website (at Secret Acres)

Curio Cabinet

Now his name can be told (again)!  John had asked me to shorten his name down to initials because of the Google, but if Secret Acres is publishing a collection of his work under his given name then the cat is most definitely out of the bag.  As for the comic, what needs to be said?  I’ve reviewed all four issues of this series and, as you can tell if you scroll through them, loved them all.  The great news here is that somebody finally put all these into one volume.  Frankly, I liked them a little bit better when they were all in magazine-sized issues, but can understand why they would want the collected edition to be in a more “traditional” size.  What’s this all about, for those of you who don’t want to read the old reviews and want all the pertinent information in this review?  There are several quiet, contemplative moments by Jason Voorhees (the Friday the 13th guy in his downtime, in a series of stories called “Cus Mommy Said So”).  Most stories in here are silent, actually, and nobody does it better than John.  Other stories in here include a lengthy squirrel obsession, the life and death of a miner, how to prove that you’re a rock and roll maniac, the early years of a Gumby-ish creature, a kidnapping giant bat creature (who clearly enjoys rubbing it in, judging from that last panel), and Jason finally achieving peace.  This edition also has more than a few full page images, all gorgeous in their level of detail, and if I’m not mistaken at least a few of them are new.  Or I am mistaken, but who cares?  They’re gorgeous.  It’s impossible to miss the level of detail that John puts into every little thing, and this book actually changed the way I looked at Jason (when I watched the fairly stupid and recent remake).  Now that all of this goodness is packed into one volume, there is no longer an excuse not to read it.  Granted, they’re mostly silent pieces, so if you’re against that sort of thing you have a reason to stay away.  Still, that’s something I’m occasionally against myself (depends on my mood), and John is such a master of manipulating emotions through these silent pieces that he’s guaranteed to win anybody over.  Check around that Secret Acres website if you need a little more convincing, but this gets my unreserved recommendation.  I’d throw in a money back guarantee if I was selling it, that’s how much I loved it.  Buy it already, make John rich and famous and reward your own personal awesomeness with this book! $15

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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…

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Curio Cabinet #3

Well, going by my completely arbitrary measure of how to tell that a comic’s creator has “made it” from my last review, it’s safe to say that John has now officially done so. Three incredible issues = admittance into the rare company of other people approaching comic genius, doomed as they are to a life of mostly unpaid artistic expression to a dwindling audience of diehard fans who are also increasingly unable to pay for such things. Hooray, my cheery thought for the day! Anyway, this comic is damned near a work of genius, and this is with me coming in with heightened expectations after the first two issues. First up is Human Again, the story of a suicidal hatchet (after his failed relationship with a teapot) and the unfortunate side effect of a hatchet leaping from the top of a tall building. Next is Silent Watcher, which would be a candidate for “story of the year” if this was 2008 already, and if I even remotely kept track of such things. Two friends are driving along the highway, rocking out, when the hand of god (or the hand of dog) reaches down and smacks one of the men out of the car. This, naturally, causes some confusion to the remaining man, and the effects on the smitten man are profound indeed. This ends in a final panel of such brilliance that it actually hurt me not to sample, but it just isn’t right to ruin a perfectly wonderful story because I feel the need to use that image as the sole example of the excellence of the work on display here. Next up are a couple of pieces about the quiet time of Jason Voorhies (yep, the guy from the Friday the 13th movies), involving him meeting a squirrel and “driving” a car. Then there’s Hatchet (no relation to the story about a hatchet), dealing with a boy who makes a little fort that he can see from his classroom. Finally there’s Hot Rockin, in which something resembling the Loch Ness monster comes onto land and deals with a land war in the only way he can. Seriously, in a series I can’t recommend highly enough, this one still manages to be the best of the bunch. No price tag, so…$3?

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Curio Cabinet #1 Now Available! $2

Before I get started, this is John’s first comic and he’s looking to get in touch with other comics folks, so if some of the “elder statesmen”would click on the link above that picture and get in touch with the guy, I’m sure he’d appreciate it. While I doubt that “elder statesmen” (whoever they are) even read the site, anybody that could offer advice would be appreciated. Not that I think he needs the help, as this is an incredible first effort. The first story in here (all wordless, or at least it doesn’t use real words) is about an old man hanging onto life, his blank, featureless child (?), and the horrors that are the rest of the family. Next up is a whole bunch of two page spreads, or “pin-ups”, as they were formerly called, at least for the type of person who would rip up their comics to put a two page spread on their wall.Anyway, the last story here is about a picnic and a creature that crashes the party. If these descriptions sound a bit droll to you, that’s my fault. There are some horrific images in here, the early work of what looks like a demented creative mind which, of course, I mean in the best possible sense. I’m guessing this is a couple of bucks, well worth a look if you like your comics a little bit odd…