Review: Jonathan's Forest (2023)
30 Comics in 30 Days - I’m reviewing a comic every day in November!
Day 8 - Jonathan's Forest by Alvin Fai
This wordless, whimsical comic about a little guy building a little house in the woods unfolds with satisfying but hard-to-explain logic. Literally: I tried to explain the events of this story to two different people and it came out sounding like nonsense, but it does work on the comics page.
Let me try one more time: Our main man Jonathan, who looks a bit like a hairy potato, starts building a house in the forest. But while walking among the trees one day, he discovers the music of the woodland creatures (the birds, the frogs, all them noisy critters).
Jonathan is overcome with childlike joy and decides to tinker with his little robot helpers (who've been building his house for him) and transforms some of them into little musicians. After that, well, without spoiling the ending, I'll just say that the old bots and new bots do NOT get along, an conflict that threatens Jonathan's cozy little forest setup.
I find Fai’s story enigmatic and their style delightful. While the actual drawings are quite different, the storytelling reminded me of Jim Woodring’s Frank comics, which also feature a silent, anthropomorphic creature whose thoughtless antics often set in motion an unfortunate and unforeseen chain of events, as Jonathan’s actions do.
Perhaps what’s most interesting about Jonathan’s Forest is the slightly sinister undertone that’s present even before things start falling apart. Sure, maybe Jonathan is just a bit naive and is a gentle soul who is moved by the beauty of forest music.
But an uncharitable reading of his character is that he’s a despotic boss using robot slaves to do his work while he just wants to chill in comfort and listen to music that his other robot slaves make for him. From that perspective, he ultimately deserves his fate.
So… yeah… after thinking about it, the comic now seems a lot less whimsical than it did at first!
(This was a purchase from this year's ShortBox Comics Fair!)
Go follow and support Alvin's work @alvinfail
Follow my bookstagram: @panthercitybooks
