Blog Archives
Innes, Lora – The Dreamer #3
The Dreamer #3
For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, that is the variant cover to this issue. Nothing against Lora’s cover, but come on, look at that thing. That’s fantastic. The story just keeps rolling along in this issue, with Beatrice learning a bit more about the situation in her “dream” world, finally goes on a date with her real-life dream guy, and learns a pretty important fact about her dream life. You know, I forgot to ask Lora at the last convention if this was a limited series. It seems like it would fit more easily in a set number of issues rather than just keeping it going, as the real angle to all this (whether or not her dreams are “real”) has to get wrapped up sooner or later. Either way, the end result of her date are almost certainly going to have consequences in her real life. Unless she ends up staying in her dream life. If it is, in fact, a dream. Ah, now I’ve gone and confused myself. The important thing is that Lora still has a great ear for dialogue, there’s some genuine suspense and mystery on both ends (maybe not as much with her life in modern day), and it’s still a kick to try and figure out what’s going to happen next. Sounds like a decent comic to me. $3.99
Innes, Lora – The Dreamer #2
The Dreamer #2
Well, I regretted not getting more issues of this series after SPACE, and now all I have to regret is that I chose to get two more issue of the series instead of just getting the graphic novel. Oh well, live and learn, and forget, and make the same mistake, and then maybe learn the next time I see her at a con. In this issue Beatrice tries explaining to her friends that she’s probably not going to go out with the guy she’s liked since 8th grade because she’s in love with a man in her dreams… and it goes about as well as you would expect. Her friends eventually convince her that she’s being ridiculous, and it all leads up to one of the more wonderfully awkward attempts at asking somebody out that I’ve ever seen, and this is coming from somebody who has been involved in more than his fair share of such things. Go ahead, guess which end of it I was on, I’ll never tell. Hint: I run a website about small press comics. Ahem. Anyway, Beatrice is still having her vivid dreams (one in class and one right before her big date in this issue), and as such we get to learn a lot more about the man she’s in love with in her dreams and their “history”. Lora is trying to get this into high schools, and I have no trouble seeing it fitting right in. It’s smart enough for an adult but it is a story about high school kids and, from my increasingly hazy memory of the time, it’s pretty accurate. This is one of those rare books you could actually share with your teenage child, assuming said teenage child is still speaking to you. $3.99
Innes, Lora – The Dreamer #1
The Dreamer #1
If there is any justice in the small press comics world, Lora will be a successful comic writer/artist in no time. I picked this up at SPACE 2009, and it was put out in October 2008. She had #1-5 available at her table and the graphic novel collecting all these books should be out soon. Granted, this isn’t a self-published mini. IDW is a fairly established publishing company at this point. Still, she clearly didn’t get the memo that small press folks are only supposed to put out 2-3 books a year. So fine, her production level is admirable, how about the quality of the actual comic? She mentioned something about going to a Disney-themed art school, but she seems to have mostly come away with a serious level of artistic skill without picking up the cutesy, obnoxious aspects of the Disney style. Granted, the males are often as pretty as the females, but a little bit of facial hair here and there should clean that up. This is the story of a young girl in high school who wakes up after a particularly vivid dream. She’s in a bit of a daze all day at school from this dream, even barely noticing when a guy she’s had a crush on for ages finally asks her out. We get to see a bit more of her dream world when she goes to bed that night, and it apparently deals with a remarkably consistent stretch of time during the Revolutionary War and her romance with a young soldier. Granted, this is all the first issue and things could fall apart from here, but it’s an intriguing setup, the dialogue is smart and funny, and as for the art, she’s clearly a pro. This is definitely worth keeping an eye on and one of what I’m sure will be many things that I wished I’d picked up more than one issue of at SPACE. $3.99
Eisner, Will – The Dreamer
I’ve decided that these are the books I’m going to get when I have a little extra cash at the end of the month Not that you need to know that necessarily, but that might help explain why this is the second review on the page for the next 2 years. This book is something else. Eisner was there at when comics were basically born, and this is the story of his experience, basically, put forth in a fictionalized manner. There’s a reason why the award for excellence in comics is named after him. I wish I knew more about the history so I could figure out who some of these people are supposed to be, but it’s a fascinating account regardless. The struggle to try and get comics made at all was a lot harder than I thought. If you haven’t been buying any of his stuff because you don’t know where to start, A Contract With God is still the place to start, just because it’s the first graphic novel. This is a great second book, especially at $7.95.
