The Dream Thief (Review), by Christopher Derrick – Sympathy For The Devil #35 | @MDWorld

May 14, 2013 Chris Derrick 0 Comments

There are many a great things I can say about Jai Nitz and Greg Smallwood’s The Dream Thief (Dark Horse Comics), like the intricate and graphically powerful page layouts, the naturalistic dialog and the true-to-live friction in the relationship between the lead, John Lincoln, and the women in his life. Smallwood’s characters “act” quite well in their close-ups, and the coloring is stylized, but to the point of being distracting. However, the southpaw curve ball that Nitz throws at us a little more than halfway through this first issue, amps the story quite a bit and took me to an unexpected place.

If I talk about it, I’ll be unleashing a spoiler and there’s nothing I hate more than spoilers. That being said, The Dream Thief does dive into its characters’ dreams and in those segments the narrative is rendered in a loopy, miasmatic manner that is perfectly suitable for the mental instability that this presents to not only us, but also to Lincoln.

 

Truth be told, I wasn’t too fond of Lincoln; he seemed like kind of a dick. However, the jailhouse letter from his estranged father that runs throughout the book (as sort of an off-kilter expositional device) fanned the interest flames. It should be noted that not being fond of a character, doesn’t mean that he’s not well crafted or isn’t compelling. Lincoln is like one of those guys you know who has good intensions and big dreams, but can’t seem to get it together. And this is why the jailhouse mea culpa letter was such a key narrative device.

Smallwood handles all the art chores – from pencils to coloring and even the lettering… while this might have produced diminished returns in the hands of a less skillful art talent, Smallwood excels with the responsibilities. As the final designer for every inch of every page, he weaves together all the various elements quite well. Little things stood out that elevated some of the deeper concepts in the story, like how he integrated Cardova’s residual dreams/thoughts within a sound FX or how he renders the location chyrons (reminds me of Fincher’s titling in PANIC ROOM).

I love that Nitz and Smallwood dig up and use the near-extinct Thought Balloons to add barbed quips that reveal character in a more immediate way than using captions. I never understood why Thought Balloons were run out of town on a rail from the comic creators’ toolbox, but I’m glad to see them back (although I wonder who is going to be so bold to regularly put them on the covers like in the Silver Age). Nitz and Smallwood even incorporate the Facebook “Like” icon in a thought balloon… which reminded of something Matt Wagner did in his Comico Grendel run (yeah, I’m gonna back that far… I’m sure this technique has been done hundreds of times since, but Wagner used it for maximum effect… it’s how his characters communicated in that one issue; brilliant and indelible in my memory).

One of the things that you’ll be asking yourself once you’ve put this book down is, are our subconscious dreams the flipside of wish fulfillment? And is the reverse also true?

The final beat leaves us hanging with a LOT of questions, but that’s a thing good, it’s exactly how you want a comic end (and something the movies ardently eschew; Nitz is huge film fan as evidence by some of the dialog exchanges)… so you can come back and read the next issue to find out those answers (and be confronted with a lot more questions). I’ll be back for the next one, and you should pick up this one, so you can hop on the ride too.

The Dream Thief will be on sale in stores tomorrow.