From former Lucasfilm art director Gary Winnick comes this delightful foray in the world of nightmares – only I don’t think I’ve ever had a nightmare this colourful. Published by Red 5 Comics, this five-part miniseries promises whimsy and wickedness in equal measure.
Written and Illustrated by Gary Winnick
Mary doesn’t remember being afraid of the dark. In fact, since waking up in a dream world of eternal day, she doesn’t remember much of anything. When night vanished, so did her memory, and now maybe it’s time to be afraid of the light…
This book starts us off with the usual kid-on-a-quest formula, then gets weird. Our heroine, Mary, encounters a friendly spider, a mouse knight, a monster name of Nimrod – and together they’re on an assignment to bring night back to a daytime world. And while that last bit sounded a lot like a club anthem from the 90s, the perils this group encounters along the way aren’t fun at all. Mercenary crow-people, anyone?
Along the way, their dialogue sounds deliberately stilted – think Winsor McCay – and doesn’t feel too far off from the way dialogue actually goes in dreams. And while we don’t learn much about Mary per se, her politeness as her friends show her around is enough to keep her character grounded. We’ll likely learn more about her as her memory returns, but for the moment, it’s enough that we get to react to this unusual world alongside her.
All the while, Winnick manages to imply a certain political complexity to the dream kingdom. We don’t know why night has been taken away, or who is manipulating the Mouse King into setting our adventurers on the wrong path, but it all does seem very involved. This place has got problems – problems that seem to have existed long before Mary was there to witness them – and these make the perils of Mary’s adventure feel solid and believable despite the whimsy.
Winnick’s cartooning style is somewhat rigid, putting forth a stained-glass world of strong shapes and bright colours. The main characters (other than Mary) are essentially black silhouettes with white highlights, standing out sharply against the bright backgrounds and coming across equally menacing and lovable. Meanwhile, all kinds of creatures hover around the edges of panels, hinting that there’s much more to this world – e.g., giant squid! – than is exactly relevant to the plot at the moment. It’s a nice way of adding even more scope to the tale, as well as maintaining a surreal atmosphere.
On the colour front, the variability of the prevailing scheme adds a nice disorienting touch – the background colours are forever fluctuating, and this, combined with the lack of background detail, lends a certain placelessness and ambiguity to the proceedings. After all, it’s the odd intentionality of dreams that adds direction to this group’s adventures; instead of a compass, they use a clock whose hands point to midnight.
Between the surreal narrative and the Lite-Brite art, this issue is definitely an experience; and while it’s not the deepest of dream-centred tales, “Bad Dreams” is an enjoyable jaunt into fun and immersive world, and should find admirers among the young and not-so-young. The release is a ways off at April 23rd, but be sure to pre-order before the end of February if you want to be a good guy. In the mean time – how about a refreshing nap?
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy
