![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Life-thru-Lens-150x229.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
\nBy Kent Olson & Sabine Ten Lohuis
\nNo ISBN:<\/p>\n
\nBy Kent Olson & Sabine Ten Lohuis
\nNo ISBN:<\/p>\n
One of the greatest things about comics is the simple, overwhelming fact that you don’t need the riches of Croesus and a cast of thousands to produce an effective and even top-rate creative outcome. As a means of delivering drama, comedy, passion, heartbreak and spectacle, nothing tops sequentially arranged words and pictures on a flat surface.<\/p>\n
With such a plastic medium there’s literally no tale that can’t be told – and at the exact undiluted pace and intensity the authors intended, with no interference from bean counters, hucksters, Health and Safety cops or the laws of physics.<\/p>\n
The first part of a much larger tale, Life Through the Lens<\/strong> is a slim but fascinating self-published work by Philosophy and Film School graduate Kent Olsen and artist Sabine Ten Lohuis created with the aid of a grant from the Kamloops, British Columbia Film Society that seeks to examine the role of the addictive power of fiction in a world of mere reality\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n You’d think that money, success, public approbation, a wonderland of drugs and a string of compliant, willing women would be enough for most men, but TV movie pundits Richard Winston<\/em> and Jerald Freestone<\/em> are painfully hungry for more: something ineffable and unobtainable\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n In Chicago as one year ends and the next begins, the great friends saturate themselves again with sex, drugs and films old and new, inarticulately wishing they were there and dreading that life and the future only holds more of the same\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n That increasingly aching creative void is slowly poisoning their lives. Richard and Jerald are only enthralled and engaged when absorbed in other peoples’ fictional realities, and only come alive when furiously debating the meaning and merit of what they’re watching.<\/p>\n In this arena – and usually in front of adoring small screen masses – they release their true selves: Richard the academic intellectual Ego<\/em>, viewing everything through layers of organisation and the heartfelt accepted wisdoms of others, whilst raw, unschooled Jerald is all Id<\/em>, allowing his visceral instinctual first response full rein over his critical sensibilities.<\/p>\n As their miserable success inexorably leads to greater excess, their unyielding friendship draws them deeper into an inescapable, shared yet polarised passion. Tragically there’s no cue for a stabilising, moralising Super Ego on their celluloid horizons\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n To Be Continued\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Teasing and tantalising, valuing subtlety over splashy booms or bangs and carefully pacing itself to create the maximum tension – even in the midst of the moving buddy-movie moments – this is an intriguing and superbly inviting walk off comics’ beaten track that will hopefully find an age-appropriate audience far above and beyond its self-admitted crossover film-fan target market. Copies of an extremely limited run are available from the marvellous High Octane Comics and Collectables<\/strong> in Kamloops if you’re ever in the vicinity, or direct from Kent Olsen via cheque or paypal ($8 in Canada, or $10 US, which I suspect includes shipping) with further details obtainable by contacting blankpaint@gmail.com<\/a> or through Sabine’s lovely webpage at http:\/\/tenlohuis.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Kent Olson & Sabine Ten Lohuis No ISBN: One of the greatest things about comics is the simple, overwhelming fact that you don’t need the riches of Croesus and a cast of thousands to produce an effective and even top-rate creative outcome. As a means of delivering drama, comedy, passion, heartbreak and spectacle, nothing … <\/p>\n
\nNo copyright or trademark so let’s assume Story \u00c2\u00a9 2012 Kent Olsen & Illustrations \u00c2\u00a9 2012 Sabine Ten Lohuis until advised otherwise. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n