Overview
Like a Lynchian take on Alice in Wonderland, Jessica Farm opens with an exterior of what could be any Midwestern farmhouse. Once inside, we track our titular heroine (she is a person, not a place) as she bounds out of bed on Christmas morning and goes about her routine, eventually breakfasting with her grandparents. The banality of the situation is subverted by a ratcheting sense of dread as we discover that Jessica's increasingly nightmarish house - where the inside seems bigger than the outside, like Snoopy's doghouse - is filled with creatures around every corner: some whimsical, some sexual, some despairing, and some malevolent. Most terrifying of all is Jessica's father. Will she even get to open the presents under the Christmas tree? Taking place over a single Christmas Day, Jessica Farm is a career-spanning comics project in which Simmons has been drawing one page every month for the past 24 years, starting in January 2000. This is a horror-fantasy-psychodrama that will appeal to fans of Charles Burns, David Cronenberg, and Dario Argento.
Reviews
An exhilaratingly horrific tour de force. There may not be another creator of horror stories working in comics, film, or prose today who comes even close to rivaling Simmons's ability to evoke an atmosphere of menace and dread.-- ""Library Journal"" The sort of book you read very fast for the story, then again right away to slow down and savor the images. As ever, the interiors in particular are captivating, darkly hatched and full of mysterious shadows.-- ""Quietus"" [Simmons's work is] idiosyncratic, grotesque, and adept at wince-level physical violence and comedy -- all in service of a worldview so brutally cold that aimed in the right direction it could shut down the sun. Simmons is the reassuring hand in the dark that took yours into his and then shoved it into something sharp and wet.-- ""Comics Reporter""
"[Simmons's work is] idiosyncratic, grotesque, and adept at wince-level physical violence and comedy -- all in service of a worldview so brutally cold that aimed in the right direction it could shut down the sun. Simmons is the reassuring hand in the dark that took yours into his and then shoved it into something sharp and wet.-- ""Comics Reporter"" The sort of book you read very fast for the story, then again right away to slow down and savour the images. As ever, the interiors in particular captivate, darkly hatched and full of mysterious shadows.-- ""Quietus"""
"The sort of book you read very fast for the story, then again right away to slow down and savor the images. As ever, the interiors in particular are captivating, darkly hatched and full of mysterious shadows.-- ""Quietus"" [Simmons's work is] idiosyncratic, grotesque, and adept at wince-level physical violence and comedy -- all in service of a worldview so brutally cold that aimed in the right direction it could shut down the sun. Simmons is the reassuring hand in the dark that took yours into his and then shoved it into something sharp and wet.-- ""Comics Reporter"""
Author Information
Josh Simmons was born in Connecticut in 1977. He is the creator or co-creator of the graphic novels House, Jessica Farm, Black River, The Furry Trap, Flayed Corpse, All Time Comics Zerosis Deathscape, and Dream of the Bat. In addition, he has contributed to many comics and anthologies including Kramers Ergot, Creepy, Mome, Razorblades and NOW. He has also self-published piles of minicomics, including his most recent series, Ghouls. He currently lives in Portland, OR.
