Slow Wave

Slow Wave is a weekly comic strip by Jesse Reklaw. It has been syndicated to alternative newspapers around the U.S. since 1995, and also appears online. It has changed style twice since its inception.

Description
While the strip as it exists currently is a fictional series authored by Reklaw, from 1995 to 2011 the strip was a collective dream diary authored by people from around the world. Readers would submit their dreams to the artist and were credited as authors of the resulting cartoon. Reklaw illustrated each dream in four panels, paring down the dreamer's commentary to a few sentences. Reklaw has said he likes dreams because they have "their own logic and a natural Dada-like humor." The strip's name refers to the EEG rhythms of REM sleep.

1995-2008 era
During this period each episode would illustrate a dream by a single reader. The strip took the form of two rows of two panels.

2009-2011 era
In 2009 Reklaw introduced continuity into the strip, with characters encountering situations based on the dreams submitted by the readers. Individual strips would sometimes depict a mixture of dreams by different readers, and situations introduced in one episode sometimes persisted into the next. The strip also changed format to a horizontal arrangement of panels.

2012 onwards
In January 2012 Reklaw ceased illustrating dreams for the strip and switched to a fictional continuity.

Collections
The anthology Dreamtoons collects 109 episodes from the first five years of the strip.


 * Dreamtoons. Shambhala Press, 2000. ISBN 1-57062-573-5
 * The Night Of Your Life. Dark Horse Press 2008. ISBN 978-1-59582-183-6