In his cosmology our most basic assumptions about cause and effect are questionable. Woodring invites us to grapple with the Big Stuff. But just when you least expect it––that is, just when Woodring has begun to create narrative expectations––our protagonists are tossed in a disorienting direction, which may lead to the evaporation of their concepts of self (anatta, in Buddhist terminology).
As the tales of a naïf wandering through a phantasmagorical landscape, the books channel a diverse array of works, from Dante’s Inferno and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Look closely and you’ll see the Hero’s Journey, the skeletal underpinnings of almost every grand myth from The Odyssey to The Lord of the Rings. However, the mind-bending uniqueness of Woodring’s oeuvre should not obscure the elements of classical literature that lurk within. The latter two books are each other’s prequels and sequels, as the characters experience an infinite loop of domestic bliss and alienation, bland normality, and the disintegration of anything approaching coherent reality. Of his entirely peculiar body of work, the most seamless components are the graphic novels Weathercraft, The Congress of the Animals, and Fran. As probably the only cartoonist who’s had an introduction written by the esteemed director, Jim Woodring might receive a MacArthur “genius” grant if only there were a category for Hallucinogenic Cosmos Imagining.
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