16 The Brauche
Maulden, Beds
MK45 2DR Englang
Dark Dreams
Well, this is a novelty. A comic without a website. That’s not the strangest thing in the world for a tiny homemade mini, when it’s clearly the first comic a person has produced, or when they’re doing something under a pseudonym and don’t want to get in trouble. But this comic is as professional in appearance as they come, even with that minimalistic cover that sucks you right in. Things start off with the winner of the recap Olympics, if such a thing existed any place other than my head. Anyone out there trying to write a decent recap of your series for your inside front cover, hunt this comic down and study it. We learn about Suzi, how her subconsciousness manifests itself in physical (and violent) form whenever she is threatened, how two agents of Order were sent to eradicate this manifestation (named Floid), how one of those agents turned on the other when he felt Floid deserved a chance to live, and how things have been calm for an undefined period of time. Then Suzi took a vacation, got in a bus crash which led to a coma, Floid pushed himself to the surface to wake her up, and Floid has been dormant ever since. That’s a recap! Bravo. It does make the fact that there seems to be no way to order past issues without actually mailing the guy a little inconvenient, to say the least, but at least we know exactly what led up to this issue. This issue begins with Floid coming out for the first time in years, as Suzi is drinking more and more these days after a breakup. Floid sees an odd creature nosing around the apartment, which sets off a chase and a chance meeting with one of those former agents of Order (Guedo). They track the creature down and Floid is tricked into the subconscious mind of a human who is something of a testing ground for other creatures like Floid, which has led to a disintegration of this guy’s sanity. Meanwhile, Guedo takes up the slack by protecting Suzi (as anybody who kills her kills Floid), and winds up going back in time after chasing another attacker. The book follows them both, as Floid’s world gets increasingly bizarre inside of that guy’s head and Guedo struggles to make it back to his own time without being exactly sure how to do so. Actually, that’s a running theme for both of them, as Floid only has the vaguest idea of what he’s doing (but knows he has to do it to get out). So if you like your comics wildly inventive, you’re going to love this one. But wait, there’s more! This comic is funny. Seriously funny, which I wasn’t really expecting to see. Sure, Floid occasionally falls into that British habit of sticking with the “bum” humor a bit past the point where it stops being funny, but overall both characters get more than their fair share of zingers, even though I hate the word “zingers”. If I had one complaint it would be that the action scenes often feel flat, like we’re just looking at a series of poses and not an actual battle, but that’s often a tricky thing to depict. I have no idea how much this costs, but it’s at least 60 pages long. Maybe the fact that it’s all black and white keeps the prices mildly reasonable? Who knows. If I can find the letter that came with this and if it gives more current contact info I’ll change it, but at the moment it looks like you’ll have to dust off the stamps (and make sure it’s the right amount, they raise it all the time) and send the man a letter. Maximize that sample and you should get a pretty good idea if this is up your alley or not…
