Good Night and Sweet Dreams!
This is a collection of short stories, almost entirely about situations that are just bizarre and otherworldly enough to make you feel uneasy, like they couldn’t really happen but still might one day. Dreams, in other words, which I guess is right there in the title. Stories include showing off a revolutionary way to make comics (but having it fail when the pressure is really on), an attempt to salt the earth to help plants grow and the effect it has on everybody involved, a conference where our hero is forced to try and sleep in the lobby before getting rid of his pants and attempting to find a bathroom (in that order), and being young enough not to care about a serial killer on the loose, not that that’s guaranteed to keep anybody safe. The heart of the book, to me, was Prison Laps. Our hero, as part of a mysterious prison sentence, was forced to run laps around his old hometown. Which was fine, until the route changed to force them to go near the scary hotel. It was nerve-racking but manageable, but then the route was changed again to force them to go THROUGH the hotel. Our hero speaks out against this, which doesn’t go well for him. Finally he reaches the roof and the sample page below happens. I won’t spoil the ending, but I will say that it’s one of the times that this book got an audible laugh out of me. The reason may surprise you! It’s a damned solid collection of stories, and after looking at his website I’m really curious about that Cobra parody as well. Give it a chance, why don’t you? $15 (ish)
