Slumber #1, from Image Comics, is a deep dive into dreamland, and it’s got enough powerful left hooks and compelling twists to keep us awake at night!
Writer Tyler Burton Smith (Kung Fury, Child’s Play, etc) pens this credibly-incredible story. A young woman named Stetson runs a business where she inserts herself into peoples’ dreams, and ‘slays the bad guys’, in order to stop their nightmares. But there is a serial killer running around in the dream world, killing people while they sleep.
It’s a novel concept, this one. While a detective is investigating gnarly crime scenes, Stetson is making a back-alley buck with her dreamwork, and all the storylines coalesce in messy, blood-spattered environments.
Italian Artist Vanessa Cardinali renders a moody, funky world, with plenty of dramatic shadows and curved lines. It’s spooky, expressive, and effective. Colourist Simon Robins keeps the ‘waking hours’ shady and the ‘dreamscapes’ ultra-rainbow-but-in-a weirdly-offputting palette. Steve Wands letters and designs the book in an unobtrusive, slipping-into-the-narrative way.
Highly recommended. Great concept and nicely disturbing, in a good-to-read-hyphened-way.
Image Comics, Slumber #1, $3.99 for 36 pages, Mature
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