Saturday Splash Page #155

"Bad Sign," in Slumber #2, by Tyler Burton Smith (writer), Vanessa Cardinali (artist), Simon Robins (colorist), Steve Wands (letterer)

A cop named Finch (that's him with his bare ass showing) is investigating a string of murders, each by a different person, all of whom claim it wasn't them. But each murder is marked by similar messages and symbols. The trail leads to a woman named Stetson, who advertises as a "Dream Healer", who helps people with issues by using a device that lets her physically enter their dreams and kill the memory that's causing the problem. Of course, Stetson is hunting for something else in the dreams of others. . .

The mini-series feels like a pitch for a Netflix show. Smith does some interesting things with the concept of entering someone's dreams, but in ways that would have been easy to translate to a moving screen. He and Cardinali don't really do anything with weird perspectives or the floors becoming the ceiling or locations looping back on themselves impossibly. The strangeness is relegated to the things they see, spider-turkeys and having some sort of goblin/zombie thing I assume she befriended in someone's dreams as a partner. Cardinali's art is very good at that; it's loose and scratchy cartoonish style, easily exaggerated for Stetson wearing Finch's skin as a suit to infiltrate his memory of a funeral, or a possessed teddy bear.

But Stetson's response to basically any situation is to shoot it, or threaten to shoot it unless it gives her answers. And despite apparently having a closet full of stuff she's likely pulled from people's dreams, she sticks to regular guns or maybe a flamethrower if she's feeling exotic.

As for the interesting things, first, the way Stetson's shtick works. If she kills the memory causing the nightmares, the person forgets it entirely. Bad experience with a clown? She kills the clown and you don't remember the clown ever existed. Except this isn't the best approach when the person that's the cause is someone the patient doesn't want to forget.

Second, the fact that even if the patient forgets what was traumatizing them, Stetson remembers, tying the mocking title of "dream eater" to the "sin eater" notion, I think. Whether it's because of that, the psychic damage of walking through a man-made portal into someone's dreams, or her not sleeping to avoid her own dreams, Stetson's waking hours are a surreal experience in themselves. She hallucinates a lot, seeing giant bugs in trucker hats at the convenience store, or random ostriches, and has internal conversations with a voice that isn't identified for a long time.

The book ran six issues in 2022, and ended on a number of cliffhangers. One character's under arrest, one's lost in someone's dreams, and Stetson got what she wanted, but it isn't clear what that's going to mean for her. I've not heard anything about the book continuing, so the answers may never come.

What I Bought 8/11/2022

And we're back. It did turn out to be a good vacation. Saw a lot of interesting things. Weather was warmer than I would have liked, but not awful. Low humidity. Driving was exhausting, but I knew that was gonna be the case. Whoever puts up billboards in Kansas sucks at math. So many times a sign would say, "x miles to exit insert number," but when you compare against what mile marker you're at, they're off by 4 to 6 miles. Thank you for confirming stereotypes, Kansas! 

I even found a little time late in the week to hit a comic store in the area. It didn't work out for me great a couple of years ago, but I found two things I wanted this time.

Slumber #6, by Tyler Burton Smith (writer), Vanessa Cardinali (artist), Simon Robins (colorist), Steve Wands (letterer) - Everyone feels that way when they have to use gas station bathrooms.

Stetson seems to be going along with Valkira, but it's really just to give Finch the chance to toast them both with the flamethrower. Except he's a little slow to react - Stetson again not realizing not everyone is on her frequency - and Valkira gets free. More fighting ensues, but eventually Stetson and Valkira end up in the real world. Where Stetson shoots Valkira, seemingly killing her.

Just a few problems with that. One, Jiang killed several cops before being arrested by Finch's partner. Two, Finch is trapped inside Ed's mind and all the equipment is trashed. Three, Valkira lives on because the nightmares Stetson kills in others' minds stay with her.

In a flashback, Stetson told her daughter hearing a voice was something that ran in the family. She tells Finch that Valkira is the last part of her daughter that's left. Valkira's vague about what she's trying to do, other than that she was created because of something done to a particular soul, and is trying to reunite and fulfill her purpose. It feels like she's saying she was supposed to exist as part of Lyla, but with nothing else left, she wants to enter the physical world and be Lyla. But she's also telling Finch this while sneaking up on him, so, pass the salt. And I don't think they've explained how Valkira could hear Stetson's thoughts in previous issues, unless this is something that goes back further than just Lyla.

I feel like Cardinali going for the empty, cartoon-style hole in the chest when Stetson offs Valkira was kind of a mistake. It almost feels like a gag from Looney Tunes. Daffy Duck yelling, "Shoot the rabbit," while not realizing he's got rabbit ears on. Like all the over-the-top killing of spider-chickens in earlier issues that was kind of absurd because it was all in someone's mind. It didn't have to be grounded in reality. You could argue it fits here because, like when Daffy gets shot in the face by Elmer Fudd, it didn't really accomplish anything.

Stetson had to realize this was how it was going to end, right? Nightmares she kills stay with her. If she kills Valkira, then Valkira will stick with her even if everyone else is free. Would it have been different for Finch if he succeeded in killing them? Is he going to see all those manifestations of Ed he torched in his sleep? Can he even sleep while he's in someone else's dreamscape?

I wondered if there was going to be a second arc to this, and I'd say there will have to be. What exactly happened when they tried to use this technique to treat Lyta is still up in the air, not to mention what's going to happen to Finch, Ed, Jiang, or Stetson who is, after all, wanted for questioning in connection with several murders.

She Bites #1, by Hedwig Hale (writer), Alberto Hernandez R. (artist), Dave Lanphear (letterer) - Walking around neighborhoods alone in the middle of the night is pretty fun. I used to do it all the time when I was a kid.

Like the solicit said, Elsie is a 134-year-old vampire who was turned as a child. This keeps her from buying smokes when she wants. So she puts up an ad for a babysitter, and Brenda applies. The interview reveals that Brenda tends to quickly reveal too much about her life, but also that she needs the money badly enough to take the job even after she sees the two corpses hanging in the shower.

There's not too much else to this issue, as it's broadly focused on establishing the two characters so they can play off each. That Elsie is very sarcastic and profane, almost always sporting an intense expression. Even when she smiles, Hernandez always makes sure her teeth are sharp and prominent. Elsie also enjoys messing with Brenda, such as letting her go into the bathroom, when there are corpses (naked corpses!) in there. Brenda tries a cheerful face at first, makes glib comments about how she's even kept most of her past babysitting clients alive, or joking about how she can handle a kid who thinks she's a vampire. But Brenda also can't help immediately laying out the unpleasant circumstances of her life at home. 

Which seems like an odd thing to do when speaking to what you believe is a child. Like Hale was not certain we would pick up from the brief glimpse earlier in the issue that Brenda's home life is, as Ally Sheedy put it in The Breakfast Club, "unsatisfying." I mean, they went to the trouble of having a panel to show Brenda keeps a scrapbook for, 'Dream Suicide Locations.' Even the convenience store clerk seems worried about her!

I did like having both characters visit the same convenience store as a way to compare and contrast. Hale and Hernandez have both scenes mirror each other in page layouts and how the panels are staged, but Elsie's eyes might be visible between the shelves, showing her sharp gaze, while in Brenda's version, the upper half of her face is above the panel border, so we're left to infer from her slumped shoulders and the way her face is aimed towards the floor. They might both be on a mission, but one is considerably more focused than the other.

What I Bought 7/20/2022 - Part 1

So I did do better on Wednesday. Not great, two books from this week, plus one book from last week, but better. So let's start with two fifth issues. One book is nearing an end, the other may be nearing the end of my patience.

She-Hulk #5, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Luca Maresca (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - It's definitely a picture of She-Hulk sitting and looking at the reader.

The person shouting for Jack is some very large, very strong guy. Strong enough to toss She-Hulk around, or take a punch from her. A lady rushes up to end the fight and claims the man is just confused and helps him leave. She-Hulk thinks this is all suspicious, but Jack mostly dismisses it. Rowell hasn't given any indication her version of She-Hulk is going to be 4th wall aware, so this is probably just experience talking.

She and Jack have a quiet, slightly awkward dinner where Jack expresses plans to return to a mansion he owns in Connecticut and live there. Quietly writing poetry and avoiding being discovered by anybody like Tony Stark. Jen still hasn't told him that his corpse shuffled up to Avengers Mansion and blew up Scott Lang. Just get on with it, it's not like either of them is dead these days. Although Lang is written as such a complete moron he might as well be. The one Ant-Man we had who wasn't either a creep or a walking mental breakdown and now he's an imbecile everyone in the Marvel Universe dislikes. Thanks, Paul Rudd!

I have to agree with others I've seen who feel this She-Hulk book feels more like a Jack of Hearts book. I think Rowell is trying to use the contrasts between Jen and Jack to illustrate her notion of what She-Hulk is as a character. How Jennifer is trying to get her life on track, but has set that aside to try and help Jack instead. How he's so hung up on that time he absorbed her gamma radiation he's afraid to help her up when she trips, while she doesn't seem to think much of it. That she wanted to get answers from that lady, but Jack wants to let it drop. Although the likelihood he was mentally conditioned somehow by the person who was experimenting on him - probably the lady - means that may not really reflect him.

The problem is, the book is still moving really slowly. Again, I think Rowell is trying to not rush through what is a pretty significant change for Jack. A guy who went into space for years because he didn't feel it was safe for him to be around people is now seemingly normal (mostly.) And he doesn't know how, but he doesn't want it to end. It's a lot to process. But again, it makes this feel like a book where the title character is almost a supporting character.

Slumber #5, by Tyler Burton Smith (writer), Vanessa Cardinali (artist), Simon Robins (colorist), Steve Wands (letterer) - A lady realizing there's a big mess to clean up.

Valkira's inside Ed, but allowed herself to be tied up, and goads Stetson and Finch into entering Ed's dreams. Also, Valkira can sense Stetson's thoughts, which makes Stetson's extremely half-baked plan even more questionable. Once inside the hotel that represents Ed's dream, Finch quickly gets caught up fighting off lots of Eds while Stetson chases Valkira. meanwhile, Jiang is going to have to kill and/or eat the SWAT team that just busted in, with Finch's partner at the lead. At least, we can hope that's what he's going to do.

Smith's continuing to tease out what happened to Stetson's daughter, and how she ended up in this job. He's also revealing more about what Valkira's up to. Stetson seems certain the goal is to exit through the red door, entering the waking world as a real being (as opposed to puppeting someone's sleeping body), with full control of her powers. Valkira says in the first panel this wasn't what she's supposed to be, but 'she' made her this way. I think we're meant to assume "she" is Stetson, but I'm guessing taking over Stetson's daughter backfired somehow.

I think Valkira just wants to feel what people actually do. We see her imitate humans when she controls one. Dancing in a club or feeding pigeons, but she says she doesn't feel anything. Cardinali draws Valkira as not making contact with anyone, except when she's switching bodies. Even the killing we always see after it's done, so we don't know what she experiences during that. It's a hollow existence, just going through the motions.

I guess the comparison would be to Stetson, who doesn't seem able to connect with anyone, either. She's on her own wavelength, and doesn't get that other people don't follow it. She expects Finch to recognize her signal without telling him what it is. I don't know if she's been inside other people's dreams so much she just thinks in dream logic now or what. The way Cardinali draws Stetson's face in that upper left panel is very similar to how she draws the "Ed masks" Stetson and Finch wear inside Ed's dream to move undetected. The fact she makes an expression like that naturally, about bringing a flamethrower inside her friend's mind, is a little disturbing.

What I Bought 6/22/2022 - Part 1

Managed to find both comics from this week, plus one from last week this same store didn't have on the shelves when I swung by then. Better late than never.

Kaiju Score: Steal From the Gods #3, by James Patrick (writer), Rem Broo (artist), Francesco Segala (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer) - Hoodie designs of a death foretold.

Time to infiltrate the Russian base around the frozen kaiju. And it goes well! Sung is still being a smartass, and Glover is still trying to dump his guilt complex on Michelle, but their forged papers pass muster. The retinal scan gets T.G. in the security office. The others ride the rail car down into Prodathu's gut to get that gold.

Which is when Pavel springs the betrayal. T.G. takes three to the torso and judging by the blood, he wasn't wearing a Kevlar vest. Pavel cranks up the thermostat which wakes the beast up, and it's time for a panicked rail car ride back out of the creature's gut. I especially like the panel of Glover and Sung looking back and seeing that the rail line is becoming rapidly vertical and starting to twist as Prodathu gets moving.

So Pavel and these other idiots want Prodathu awake because they believe it will cleanse the earth of all the "garbage". Meaning people that aren't them. I suspect the creature does not distinguish one human from another and that Pavel will learn this firsthand. People are very bad at seeing the possible consequences of their actions. It'll always end up being someone else's problem.

Although in this case, I think they've forgotten that Prodathu was in battle with another mega-kaiju when it got frozen. One I think was buried under it, and is probably also going to wake up. We just glimpse its outline through the ice in the panel of Sung falling to his "death". I suspect he's not actually going to die, because I doubt Patrick will kill more than half the crew and with T.G. bleeding out and Glover not having died fucking up yet, someone else has to survive beside Michelle.

Anyway, the other kaiju will either save humanity, or lead to its total destruction as the two creatures rampage across the globe. Guess we'll see next month!

Slumber #4, by Tyler Burton Smith (writer), Vanessa Cardinali (artist), Simon Robins (colorist), Steve Wands (letterer/designer) - And then, the swans showed up.

Stetson figures out it isn't Valkira possessing the memory of Finch's dead brother, but some dream demon with poor grammar instead. Feels like a bit of a cheat, but it does play into the sense that Stetson's been at this a while, while we're like Finch who has been thrown into the deep end. Meanwhile, someone showed up at her office and knocked out Ed, but seemingly didn't take anything. Stetson suspects Valkira possessed Finch's fiancee and they rush to the hospital where she works. 

Stetson's rapidly losing her grip, looking sweaty and vaguely disoriented in some panels, and starts accusing Sadie of being possessed. Then Finch's cop partner shows up, because they found the murder he committed, plus Stetson's card. And here Finch is, with Stetson. Stetson tranqs the cop, and the fiancee. But Sadie's not possessed, so who is?

It's a credit to Smith that, when Stetson got out of Finch's dream and found Ed not dead, and nothing missing, that I thought I knew what was going on, but he got me to doubt it. Because Stetson was so sure she understood what was happening, and, like Finch, we just got swept along in her wake. I still don't understand exactly what Valkira is after. Is she planning to hook Ed into the dream machine, then walk her own body out through the interface into the physical world? It seems like she could have managed that anytime, just by hiding in someone's mind and guiding them to Stetson. Then just slip out the door while Stetson and her partner are busy running around in the person's dreams.

In the hospital, Stetson mentions see sees the nightmares she takes from other people everywhere she goes. Cardinali draws them in all through that scene. Some we've seen before, like the talking cockroach with the backwards ballcap, others we haven't. The memory of them lingers in her mind, even as she erases it from theirs. Which explains why the nightmares call her a "dream eater", while her business card says "dream healer".

What I Bought 5/18/2022 - Part 2

Was not expecting to find all four books from last week I wanted at the store here in town. Maybe three, tops. But pleasant surprises are welcome. It would almost encourage me to look on the bright side of things, if I weren't the person I am.

Slumber #3, by Tyler Burton Smith (writer), Vanessa Cardinali (artist), Simon Robins (colorist), Steve Wands (letterer) - Man, don't litter in somebody's grave. Unless it's a trash hole. Some graves are essentially trash holes. I think the difference is based on the amount of care used in placing the body. Lower it slowly? Grave. Toss it in? Trash hole.

The story starts with a quick flashback filling in a little more about why Stetson's after Valkira and hints towards how she got involved in running around in people's dreams. From there, it shifts to the present, inside Finch's dream, as he gets dragged along with Stetson and Jiang as they seek Valkira. They end up at a funeral, which Finch badly wishes to avoid. So Stetson "kills" him and wears his skin. Things still go sideways and they dive into the grave, where they find a subterranean cavern and the body of Finch's brother. Which Valkira has possessed and Finch is rather protective of.

Smith explains a couple of things in this issue which become immediately relevant, one of which I had been wondering about. Namely, why shooting the bad thing in a dream does any good. Apparently, if you kill it in a dream, it's gone forever. The person no longer remembers it and can therefore no longer be haunted by it. The other point is that the person whose dream they're in, can't be killed. At least not permanently. They just respawn through the nearest door. Seems like it wouldn't kill them, just erase their sense of themselves, but OK. Stetson uses the latter to her advantage a couple of times, and Valkira's using the former.

It only lasts a page-and-a-half, but I like Robins' color work after they dive into the grave. The cavern is this monotonous greyscale, as is everything in it (Finch has little four-armed fish-head guys who clean in his dreams, which I like as a random detail). Except for the lake of red liquid they fall into. It's a stark contrast and it really grabs the eye. The flashback is done with dull, muted colors and lots of black backgrounds. The characters are occasionally surrounded by light, but it doesn't brighten them much. It's there, but like it isn't interacting with them somehow.

Kaiju Score: Steal from Gods #2, by James Patrick (writer), Rem Broo (artist), Francesco Segala (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer) - I don't think the white lettering of the title set against T.G.'s cream-colored hair is a good set-up. Need more variation between colors.

Having committed to taking the job, Michelleand her crew get a rundown on the facility and how they can get inside. Unfortunately, there's a lot of security measures, and those they have to work around themselves. Also, after Michelle put a bounty on Carlito, he raised the bounty he put on them. So Michelle asks the creepy guy who financed the first kaiju score for a loan to up her bounty to match, and then goes to ask Marco for help. He won't come on the heist, because apparently pulling off one successful score was enough for him (smart man), but he does help her identify the way past the security measures. Great.

Except Glover almost screws up the retinal scan, and the Russians hit treasure sooner than expected, and the guys who hired them have something else in mind with this job than what they said.

I've been wondering who was going to make it out of this, or where the inevitable double-cross was coming from, but more and more that looks irrelevant. The way Patrick writes this, the whole thing is a maze nobody (except Marco, oddly enough) can actually escape. Even if Carlito gets killed, even if these guys who hired them get killed (because I'm guessing they've got a lot more cash than Carlito if they decide on revenge/tying up loose ends), Michelle's gonna have to pay the hitman broker back, and he must charge ridiculous interest, and now she's got to pay Marco for his time, and look after her crew. It's just an endless cycle of getting in debt to do a score to pay off debt incurred to pull off a previous debt.

Broo uses a fair amount of short, wide panels to zoom in on people's faces, at least during the tense conversations. When Michelle's talking with the guy that hired them, or she and Glover are arguing. The talk with Marco, he pulls things back a little. The pressure is still there, there are still some tight panels to make it seem like Michelle's boxed in, but Marco's in the panel with her. She's not on her own, she isn't having to pretend she has everything under control because this isn't someone looking for weakness or needing reassurance.

What I Bought 4/20/2022 - Part 1

It almost completely slipped my mind Wednesday was 4/20. I don't smoke weed, but I know a lot of people that do. Guess I figured one of them would mention it. Oh well. Anyway, here's one book from this week, and one book from last week.

Batgirls #5, by Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad (writers), Jorge Corona (artist), Sarah Stern (colorist), Becca Carey (letterer) - That is a really dumb helmet Spellbinder's got. How does he see through it?

The Batgirls - all three of them - draw out the Saints and defeat them in less than 7 pages. That's barely over a quarter of the comic. Usually takes most teams at least a half to defeat the Saints, but I guess times are tough since Drew Brees retired. I think we're meant to take it that this is how it goes when the Batgirls are ready and fighting on their terms, but it comes off as pretty underwhelming for a threat they were trying so hard to avoid for the first 4 issues. The pacing of the fight is weird, too. Cass decides to play chicken with the Saints (who are driving an A-Team van, basically). One panel of the Saints recognizing this, one panel of the big guy insisting he's happy to oblige, next panel they're panicking and swerving. Feels like it could have been presented in a more interesting way, but Cloonan and Conrad wanted more pages to spend talking about Tutor's backstory.

Anyway, the Saints are off the board for now (July's solicit says they'll be back by then), so the trio splits up. Cass and Steph head to what's left of Arkham to confront the Tutor, while Barbara (in civilian garb), goes to visit her old psychiatrist chum. Too late, the girls figure out Charles Dante was the Tutor's shrink in Arkham and Barbara's out cold. In the meantime, Tutor's assembled an army of people, which Cass intends to fight alone, while Stephanie squares off with the Tutor.

There's a sequencing foul-up, where Barbara is telling the others where they're going and you're supposed to turn the page and get a full-page splash reveal of Arkham Asylum. Except they screwed up and put the page that would follow that first, so we see the girls jumping the fence and snooping through offices, then back outside the gates staring up at the asylum. Great hustle, DC. Maximum effort there.

I can't keep up with the redesigns to Barbara's Batgirl outfit. There was the "Burnside" outfit, then they did one that I thought ditched the cowl and just went with a mask, and now she's back to the pointy cowl like the Burnside look, but they ditched most of the yellow except the chest emblem and the cape lining, and added a lot more black, including the cowl. Just looks weird against the blue of the costume.

I feel like the creative team is trying to set a quick pace here, but I'm not sure it's working. The narration boxes that are from someone who isn't any of the Batgirls definitely aren't working. I think it's a narrator, but I don't know why they think we needed that. Spend more time on the characters's thoughts! Maybe I was always supposed to recognize the Saints as little more than an annoyance. At the end of the day, they're just three fanatics who think they serve a higher purpose, while Tutor and Spellbinder are controlling an army. Although at the end of the day, Tutor's just a deluded pawn like the Saints. Something's not working right for me with this, and it isn't the character interactions, I enjoy those. The pieces are there for me to dig this more than I do, I'm just less sure it'll happen before I give up.

Slumber #2, by Tyler Burton Smith (writer), Vanessa Cardinali (artist), Simon Robins (colorist), Steve Wands (letterer) - It looks refreshing, bursting out of your old body in a brand-new body. The next big health craze.

So, Detective Finch killed a man, chopped him up, and stuffed him in his fridge. Or more accurately, the dream demon Stetson is hunting took control of his body and did that. So, his need to find and question Stetson just got more urgent. Stetson, meanwhile, is talking with a different dream demon about her target, who tells her this creature wants to become human, somehow. Finch shows up, the conversation goes south very quickly, so her guys drug Finch and they jump inside his mind.

Inside, they find a version of Finch on the floor, weird things growing from his chest, and the same marks as the creature from the previous issue. Stetson frees a very of Finch from that form, but he's not much help. May not matter, because Valkira left a message for Stetson.

After the first issue, I thought Stetson had been used as a child by Valkira and killed her own mother. Now it sounds like Valkira may have controlled Stetson's daughter and the child wound up dead. I don't know how much of a difference that will make. I guess Stetson would be driven by feeling like she failed as a parent, rather than anger at something that terrorized and used her as a child. Does one make her more reckless than the other? 

There's indications Stetson's mind isn't entirely secure. During the conversation with Finch, Robins shifts to this almost psychedelic color scheme from one page to the next, while it seems like Stetson is just doing exposition for Finch. But she's actually fallen asleep or nodded off mid-conversation. So who is telling her to ignore the ostrich? Is it just a response to stress and trauma, or part of Valkira's plan?

Cardinali draws Stetson looking like ten miles of bad road at all times. Either slouched or with her shoulders drawn up to her ears, frequently scowling and deep shadows under the eyes. Not bothering to disguise the bruises from her work. So I could believe the character just rarely sleeps and is showing every bit of that. If she wants to make sure to meet Valkira on her terms, she might try to avoid sleep so the demon can't get in that way.

I'm also curious how much Finch will remember of what's going on in his dreams when he wakes up. The guy in the first issue didn't seem to recall Stetson shotgunning the clown. That could be a complication. So could the body in his fridge, for that matter. Gonna have to do something about that eventually.

What I Bought 3/19/2022 - Part 1

Had an owl hanging out on my windowsill one night a couple of weeks ago. Only noticed it at first because it cast a weird shadow across the blinds. No, it was not trying to peer into my apartment. This time.

Here's a couple of first issues from the last two weeks.

Slumber #1, by Tyler Burton Smith (writer), Vanessa Cardinali (artist), Simon Robins (colorist), Steve Wands (letterer) - Come on lady, don't allow stuff to escape from the dreamscape into the real world. That's just begging for dangerous invasive species.

Stetson, with her (zombie?) pal Jiang and tech guy Ed, helps people deal with recurring nightmares. By going inside their dreams and killing the hell out of what's tormenting them. Stetson has her own reasons, as she's seeking someone called Valkira, the Shadow Walker. Meanwhile, in the waking world (sort of), there's a series of murders being committed by people who all claim to have been sleepwalking. They wake up in a home they don't know, standing over a corpse they don't know. And there are marks on the wall, along with a demand to be brought to the "Dream Eater". During the interrogation of the most recent suspect, Detective Finch has a bad experience and the next time he wakes up, he's the latest suspect.

I wasn't sure if I'd dig this, but at least through this issue, I am. It hit the ground running. Showed how Stetson tries to help people with nightmares, gave us some quick intros to her crew. Do I want to know how she ended up working with a possible katana wielding zombie? Yes I do. Gave some hints to her past and why she's after Valkira, and at least suggests Valkira is the cause of the sleepwalker killings. Although part of me expects a bait and switch there. Introduced this Finch guy and showed how he gets dragged in, and why he may try to divert the other police away from Stetson. Because otherwise, her card showing up at all these killings really ought to get her dragged in for questioning at some point.

Cardinali's art makes everyone look a little strange. No incredible physiques, but everyone is beady-eyed or bug-eyed, or lumpy shaped. Stetson and Jiang are both thin and Stetson looks eternally exhausted. Finch and the other cop both have thick lines under or around their eyes. Really, everyone looks like they don't get enough sleep. But if being asleep is this dangerous, that makes sense. the people in dreams don't look that much different, fingers a bit longer, teeth larger and sharper. Enough to look a little weird, but maybe it's because Stetson's pretty inured to it by now.

Cardinali doesn't play with the weird effects of being in a dream, too much, beyond stuff like floating whales in the background. There is one bit where their client is running and falls, only to hit their back against the top of the panel

Broken Eye #1, by Martin and Xabier Etxeberria (writers), Inaki Arenas (artist) - Sir, your scar is cool, but severely undermined by that mustache you're trying (I emphasize trying) to grow.

Liverpool 1970 and a guy named Seamus finds a hand floating in the sea. A hand that belongs to the assistant of a judge who is trying to bring down Sebastien Delporte, who is, at least, an illegal arms dealer. Arms like guns, not like human limbs. Although maybe human limbs. There's a cop named Hathaway looking into Delporte, we'll see how that goes. And a man named Brendan is released from prison, determined never to go back. That could be difficult, as he's being told to purchase weapons from Delporte to defend the Irish from the British Army.

This feels like it could play out like a Guy Ritchie movie, where you can see all the disparate threads are going to come together, and they do some in some absurd clusterfuck. Seamus has a murdered man's hand, and since his right eye allows him to see things about the owners of things he touches, he's seen the face of the man who cut that hand off. Probably not admissible in court, but the sort of thing Hathaway would like to know, and Delporte would like to keep quiet. The sort of thing Brendan might handle for a discount. I don't think it'll be funny for anyone involved, however.

On top of that the Etxeberrias introduce other characters that are in Seamus' circle. Victoria and her son Felipe. Seamus seems to like Victoria and gets along with Felipe. Then late in the issue, he meets Eleanor and her dog Digs. My first impression is they're setting up the two women as opposite ends of a spectrum. Eleanor's blonde, white, seems younger, dresses maybe less casually. Victoria's older, Chinese, brunette, and they establish she's a sex worker. They both seem interested in Seamus, so we'll see how that plays out.

Arenas handles both art and color on the comic. The art leans towards clean but effective style. Not a lot of excess lines. A few to show creases around eyes, or jowls, but that's about it. There's a nice bit when Brendan's being released from prison with three rows of panels. The first shows his and two guards' heads as they exit the cell block. The next two rows are each three panels, and the middle panels are still Brendan, moving down his body as he's switching from prison garb to civilian clothes, and in the final row, fully dressed with his coat and suitcase as he leaves the prison entirely. For good, he says. The guards' presence and any of their comments are reserved for the panels on either side of him, and they cease to show up at all once he's outside the gates.