3 out of 5

Covers ‘The Backwards Folding Mirror #1, 2, and ‘Follow Me.’

Combining the shamanistic internal symbolism of Jim Woodring with a completely limber, Lynchian principle of dream-like structure, Jesse Moynihan’s series is not quite as polished as either of those comparisons – the dense but simplistic backgrounds and amorphous blobs are nowhere near the complicated worlds of ‘Frank’ and the wandering ‘narrative’ (admittedly some material might be culled from various sources) has a much less centralized feel than most of Lynch’s work – but the artist nonetheless creates his own vision from these pieces.  It’s not necessarily a satisfying read, but it doesn’t seem to want to be, exactly – this is a personal narrative that Jesse has made glib and weird enough for outsiders to read, but the intention might be more of simple expression – like a visual diary, dolled up with some silly sketches to cover the emotional pangs – than to wrap in an audience.  For the most part, we’re following a gnomish character (mostly gnomish because of his triangle hat – a shape / cranial addition that appears in different forms) as he segues into and out of his dreams, wherein he interacts with, perhaps, other aspects of his personality, one most notably represented by a naked devil-looking dude.  This is never explicit except toward the last pages of ‘Follow Me,’ but as the devil seems to express a more verbose expression of the main character’s desires – initially sexual – it seems like a workable theory.  At first many stories start with the lead’s girlfriend about, but her role trails off for ish #2 and 3’s almost completely surreal flow.  The overall theme is, thankfully, not as obnoxious as trying to suss out the meaning of life, but some point after that – Moynihan (or our character) is living with the guilt of understanding his own selfish existence, and wondering if there’s anything that comes of that?  …Resulting in him destroying the world toward the end (in Jesse’s version of Plato’s shadows-in-the-cave concept: a movie projector playing an image of the planet) and then sticking around in nothingness because what else is there to do and oh yeah tits.  The occasionally snarky and crass statements that are made seem like purposeful distractions from the heady concepts and one-liners, and it’s appreciably spaced out so that you never roll your eyes or feel like it’s too self-depracating.  And it doesn’t quite start with the question exploded to that level – issue’s #1 and 2 play around with guilt on a smaller scale, wondering about life and death and legacies and children before eschewing some of these grounded concepts for Jesse’s personal symbols of flying animals and blobs that pour forth from our body.  The iconography is perhaps more fully illustrated in his ‘Forming’ series; ‘Folding Mirror’ is closer to mental ramblings.

So its personal themes make it a bit more closed experience than some of his surreal peers’ / influences’ works, but Jesse’s loose, jokey style keeps ‘The Backwards Folding Mirror’ from being completely exclusive.  Those with a willingness to let narrative slip and slide in favor of considering the pieces on their own terms will find the ‘Mirror’ worth picking up.  Hell, the rest of you will too, since I don’t know what I’m talking about.  Shamanistic internal symbolism?  Meh.