Brodowski, John – Curio Cabinet

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