“˜Dreamtoons’ offers glimpse into nocturnal world
By Daily Bruin Staff
Sept. 28, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 Illustration by CASEY CROWE/Daily Bruin
By Michael Rosen-Molina
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It’s just one of those days. First, you show up to class
late, only to realize that today is the big midterm that you
totally forgot about. Then, you realize that you don’t
recognize any of the test material. Then you realize that
you’re completely naked.
Then you wake up.
Dreamcatcher Jesse Reklaw sifts through the nebulous other world
of the sleeping psyche to create “Slow Wave,” a comic
strip that celebrates just such bizarre nightmare situations.
“Dreamtoons,” a collection of over three years of
the popular comic, provides a hilarious, disturbing glimpse into
the Freudian depths. Originally an Internet cartoon, “Slow
Wave” is now published by 12 weekly newspapers across the
U.S.
The strips are all based on actual dreams, sent to Reklaw by
readers around the world. The cartoonist illustrates the stories,
using personal photos provided by the reader to draw his caricature
into the strip.
The strips are odd and surreal, as well as unsettling, but still
follow an alien internal logic. Their very strangeness makes them
comforting and familiar, assuring readers that these are real
dreams. No waking mind could ever envision such spectacle.
In one dream, a man recalls visiting a friend’s house to
view a brood of baby porcupines. The young porcupines, however,
look more like snakes, squirming around in the backyard. One baby
then upsets his owner by drinking from a nearby lake.
BOOK INFORMATION Â Â
Title: Dreamtoons
Author: Jesse Reklaw
Publisher: Shambhala Publications Inc.
Price:
$10.95Â Â Â Â Pages: 126
Rating: 9
Original by JACOB LIAO/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation by Hernane
Tabay/Daily Bruin Senior Staff According to dream science, this
poor porcupine would not have as many quills when fully grown. The
entire scenario boggles the mind. What strange midnight snack could
possibly have produced such a vision?
Other stock situations crop up often in “Slow Wave.”
Shadowy pursuers chase hapless dreamers down blind alleys, while
unseen accusers put them on trial. Teeth fall out, students attend
class sans pants, falling people wake before hitting the
ground.
Reklaw’s matter-of-fact delivery puts punch into the old
themes. For instance, a woman visits an interdimensional mall.
Despite the exotic sights, her most vivid memory is of discovering
a wallet full of cash, but calmly deciding to turn it in to Lost
and Found, because “it wasn’t earth money.”
Dressed to the nines in suit and tie, in another comic dream, a
paranoid man awkwardly sips champagne at a swanky party. His fear
is justified: “You see,” he explains calmly, “I
have the last belt in the world and international terrorists want
it.”
The terrorists attack, drug him, and steal his belt. Upon waking
in a ditch several hours later, he is horrified to find that, not
only has the precious belt been stolen, his hands have also been
taken and replaced with new ones.
“I don’t know how I knew,” he says,
“there weren’t any stitches, but I just knew they
weren’t mine.”
As funny as the familiar stand-bys are, the true gut-busters are
so impossibly bizarre that the reader simply cannot make heads or
tails of them.
A giant and evil hot air balloon named Cornelius chases a family
across a desert. An elephant has fantasies of being a secret agent.
Interrogators force an unwilling victim to talk by threatening his
friends, who just happen to be a packet of fancy ketchup and a
packet of relish.
Yes, his friends are talking condiment packets.
Reklaw presents even these dreams with the same deadpan
sincerity, making them all the funnier. He opts to draws his
subjects as subdued, not as bug-eyed caricatures. The realistic
drawings and understated prose only emphasize the absurdity of the
subject matter.
Although most of his comics tend to be more realistic and the
less “˜cartoony,’ Reklaw’s style shifts depending
on the dream.
When a reader recalls a dream where her enraged father abandons
her in hardware store, Reklaw is able to skillfully exaggerate her
feelings of helplessness while at the same time, diffusing a
potentially disturbing dream, making it funny by adopting a looser,
comic style. The angry father bears a striking resemblance to the
blustering Bluto of Popeye cartoons, while the hapless child is a
gangly stick-thin waif that recalls Popeye’s love interest
Olive Oyl.
Sandwiched between uproarious cartoons are nugget’s of
wisdom from psychologists and Zen masters alike, all pontificating
on the mysterious subject of dreams. The quotes fit well into the
scheme of the book, adding to the almost documentary tone of the
strips.
“Dreamtoons” is a fresh new idea in cartoons ““
innovative and daring. A rorshach comic, readers can impose any
interpretation on the confusing storylines. Although inherently
voyeuristic, “Dreamtoons” playful irreverence keeps the
experience from becoming dark or creepy. Rather, it feels like a
healing exercise in trust and acceptance: complete strangers lay
their psyches bare for the world to see, warts and all.
More important than all of its social and psychological
ramifications, though, is the fact that it’s just plain
funny. The random humor works well, sending readers into paroxysms
of laughter. “Dreamtoons” injects a much needed dose of
absurdity into this dreary, work-a-day world. Besides, if you
can’t laugh at a chorus line of dancing pigs in tutus, then
what’s left?
BOOK: For more information on “Slow Wave,” visit
www.slowwave.com.
