Customer Reviews

Cinema Panopticum

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A girl at a carnival finds that her small amount of money won't get her onto any rides or do any of the stalls until she finds a small unattended attraction called "Cinema Panopticum". Inside are 5 sets with screens, all cheap. She puts a coin in each and watches them one by one.

"The Hotel" is a kafka-esque tale of an unattended hotel and a man wanting to stay the night in it. Finding a lavish spread in one room he feasts upon it and then heads to bed. He wakes in the middle of the night with an ache in his gut... why is this hotel empty?

"The Champion" features a Mexican wrestler literally fighting for his life against Death.

"The Prophet" features a homeless man and his attempts to spread the word that the world is doomed.

"The Experiment" features a mad scientist and his experiment on a man with poor eyesight.

In all the stories, Ott excels at storytelling, all without words. The scratchboard technique in black and white matches perfectly the tone of mounting horror in each of the macabre stories and has you rifling through the pages, devouring each brilliant story.

As with all of Ott's books you can fly through it in minutes but I always find myself going back and looking at individual panels. The level of artistry is astonishing and I wish he'd make poster size reproductions of some of them so I can put them on my walls.

"Cinema Panopticum" might be my favourite Thomas Ott book and I heartily recommend him to fans of comics. He's simply too good to be passed over.

Brilliant, wordless storytelling at its best. Ott's style communicates volumes with minimal fuss, weaving stories that captivate and stimulate.