Parasomnia #3

Parasomnia #3

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Written by Cullen Bunn

Illustrated by Andrea Mutti

Lettered by Simon Bowland

In a twisted dream world, a nameless stranger battles nightmares in his hunt for his missing son—while in the waking world, the boy's parents find their lives falling apart. As the search for his son in his dreams carries on a bizarre plot is uncovered of children being used as bait for monsters.

Today’s theme is unusual storytelling and while dream walking isn’t anything new, there are many indigenous peoples who believe in its practice, it is something we don’t see much in comics, at least not done like this. This is the second book by Cullen I am reviewing today and this offering is vastly different from the other. The idea that the parents would dream the same dream as their son and this leads to how they are currently dealing with their lives and the fact that their son is missing. Now when something like what they’ve experienced happens there’s a good chance that there’s something genetic involved, after all if one or both the parents are capable of doing this then the chances their offspring can also do this is that much greater. Yeah I’m using science and the supernatural together in my reasoning which should tell you exactly how engaged I am in this book.

I absolutely adore the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is exceptionally well told. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. What we see through this is the ever changing personality to the main characters and it really makes quite an impact. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns, the characterisation and so much more we are fully enthralled by the events we see unfold.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is magnificently rendered. How what we see within these layers add this wonderful depth, dimension and complexity to the story through the avenues that we see open or already exist is masterfully handled. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are as gorgeous as ever. The linework we see is exquisite and how the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work we see throughout the book is beautifully rendered. That Andrea is also able to utilise colour to enhance the detail work is masterfully laid down. The way backgrounds are seen and how they enhance and expand the moments while working within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is fabulously rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masters eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows such a great understanding of how colour works and how to maximise its effects. The dirt in his white beard or just the unusual colour schemes being utilised throughout are great examples of that.

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With some extremely unusual storytelling thanks to some incredibly great writing and solid characterisation that’s wrapped up in these stunning interiors we see a father’s search for his son. We do see some signs of the search reaching the wrong ears and this could cause some serious trouble but we’ll have to wait to see. I don’t really want this to end. There's so much potential and so many possibilities with this idea and how we see things happening and it’s just fascinating all get out.