Jesse Reklaw (born 1971) is an American cartoonist and painter, author of the syndicated

dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

-based comic strip '' Slow Wave''.

Biography

Reklaw was born in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

and grew up in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, studied at

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge ...

, and completed a master's degree in computer science at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. In 1995, while pursuing a Ph.D. in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

, he began self-publishing comics in his dream-themed series ''Concave Up''. At the same time, he developed the weekly strip ''Slow Wave''; when he began to have some success in syndicating it, he dropped out of Yale to work as a cartoonist. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his cat, Littles, who appears in many of his strips and zines.

''Slow Wave''

'' Slow Wave'' is "a collective dream diary authored by people from around the world." Readers email their dreams to Reklaw, who illustrates them in a classic four panel cartoon which credits the dreamer as co-author. Reklaw pares down each dream he selects to a few sentences. Reklaw has said he likes dreams because they have "their own logic and a natural

dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...

-like humor." Examples of ''Slow Wave'' stories include one in which "a man is pursued by an all-knowing ham"; one in which "the Royal Hole in the Earth Society discusses an award for the best hole filled with water"; and "one about a man who rode a unicorn to distant mountaintops in search of the world's only bathroom". ''Slow Wave'' has been published in alternative newspapers and on the web since 1995. An anthology of ''Slow Wave'' strips was published in the book ''Dreamtoons''. ''Slow Wave'' has also been published in ''Dream Time'', the newsletter of the Association of the Study of Dreams, and two ''Slow Wave'' strips appeared in the textbook Introduction to Psychology, 5E by James Kalat, published by Brooks/Cole.

Other works

Andrice Arp Chris Cilva Jesse Reklaw Stumptown Comics Festival 2007 Tim Goodyear

Reklaw's work has frequently appeared in small-press anthologies and self-published

minicomics A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term small press comic is equivalent with minicomic, reserved for those publications measuring A6 (105&n ...

, many of which are available through the small-press comics distributor Global Hobo, which he co-operates. He is also the designer and editor of a small found object art book, ''Applicant'', which reproduces photographs and descriptions of graduate school applicants in the 1970s. Reklaw maintains the ethics of the early indie

zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very s ...

and

mail art Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence Scho ...

traditions, and has been known to send strangers free mini-comics in envelopes decorated with "crazy fish stamps." Reklaw is currently writing an autobiographical graphic novel called ''Couchtag,'' an excerpt of which, ''13 Cats'', was published in Houghton Mifflin's '' Best American Comics 2006''. In 1992, Reklaw was in a band called "Pissant" with fellow cartoonist

Adrian Tomine Adrian Tomine (; born May 31, 1974) is an American cartoonist. He is best known for his ongoing comic book series ''Optic Nerve'' and his illustrations in '' The New Yorker''. Early life Adrian Tomine was born May 31, 1974, in Sacramento, Cal ...

Awards

In 2004, Reklaw won an Excellence in Journalism Award from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for his regular publication of ''Slow Wave'' in the

East Bay Express The ''East Bay Express'' is an Oakland-based weekly newspaper serving the Berkeley, Oakland and East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is distributed throughout Alameda County and parts of Contra Costa County every Wednesday. The ' ...

, and he received awards from the

Association of Alternative Newsweeklies The Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) is a trade association of alternative weekly newspapers in North America. It provides services to many generally liberal or progressive weekly newspapers across the United States and in Canada. A ...

in 2001, 2003, and 2004 for ''Slow Wave'', including "Best cartoon" and "Format buster." Reklaw has been nominated five times for an

Ignatz Award The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping ...

: Outstanding Online Comic in 2003 (''Slow Wave''), and Outstanding Minicomic in 2001 (''Mime Compliant'' #5), 2003 (''Lo-Horse'', with David Lasky), and 2005 (''Couch Tag'' #2). In 2008, he won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Minicomic for (''Bluefuzz The Hero'').

Works

;Books * ''Keeping Score'', Fantagraphics Underground, 2019 * ''Lovf: An Illustrated Vision Quest of a Man Losing His Mind'', Fantagraphics Books Inc., 2016 * ''Couch Tag'', Fantagraphics Books Inc., 2013 * ''Ten Thousand Things to Do'', Microcosm Publishing, 2010 *''The Night of Your Life'', Dark Horse Books, 2008 *''Applicant'', Microcosm Publishing, 2006 (previously self-published) *''Dreamtoons'', Shambhala Press, 2000 ;Comic book series *''Couch Tag'' #1-3, 2004–2006, self-published minicomics *''Concave Up'' #1-6, self-published

References

External links

Comic Books: Beyond 'Thwak!' and 'Kaboom'
, ''To the Best of Our Knowledge'', Wisconsin Public Radio (Reklaw,

Daniel Clowes Daniel Gillespie Clowes (; born April 14, 1961) is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter. Most of Clowes's work first appeared in '' Eightball'', a solo anthology comic book series. An ''Eightball'' issue typi ...

, and

Michael Chabon Michael Chabon ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...

interviewed), broadcast January 21, 2001 *
Oakland cartoonist finds a dreamy way to live: He illustrates readers' visions in 'Slow Wave'"
Rona Marech, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', August 15, 2003 *
Dreamweaver: Jesse Reklaw
, Brian Warmoth, Wizarduniverse.com, August 11, 2006
Publisher's catalog page for ''Applicant''Review of ''Applicant''
by Candice Lucado at ''Sequential Tart''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reklaw, Jesse Alternative cartoonists Oneirologists University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Artists from Berkeley, California Yale University alumni Living people 1971 births