DREAMLANDS: Lives and Epics Book 1 is a comic written by Stelios Pliatsikas with art by Thanos Kyratzis. A man journeys through the Dreamlands and attempts to chronicle all the stories in a book. This is a thought-provoking tale full of introspection and commentary on the world within. Our leading man is nameless and the only character we focus on throughout this issue. The plot has our leading character walking through the land and jotting down the events that occur while making comments and occasionally attempting to reach different locations. On this journey we’ll get bits and pieces of much larger stories as this land is full of them. There also seem to be quite a few mysteries. I’ll be honest, I did get confused a few times and had to reread to understand what was going on. I found that the best way to experience this story was just to go with the flow. The action here is light but does get a bit gory. The pacing is slow as we are supposed to soak in each page as we read. The dialogue is a bit poetic and our lead has a large vocabulary. Though there are no wordy pages there will be a few sentences you’ll have to double back on. This is an interesting comic that has the reader riding shotgun through a mystical journey in the land of dreams.
The art here is in black-and-white with some significant dithering. The style is rough which seems to be a choice as it pairs well with the subject matter. This story takes place in the Dreamlands which is an evolving landscape with a wide variety of different places being found throughout. This is an environment full of ruins and objects that seem out of place. Most of the structures have a medieval style. This is a very unexpressive comic as most of the looks we’ll see are stale and stoic. This fits the story as the lead character acts as an observer traveling and recording what they see. On this journey you’ll see a lot of humanoid things that look to be just a bit off. Some of the effects that happen on these pages will confuse you and you’ll stare at them for a while to try and understand. The action scenes are short and few with some body part separation.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yeah.
“Would I like this?”
If you like stories where the lead character goes on an observational journey and waxes poetic about what they see while offering up commentary like mythological works than this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. For a gory scene.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“So I tried everything. Even to pick a fight with the dead.”
Purchase Link: https://loudmousecrewcomics.gumroad.com/l/opbsey?layout=profile
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wryter/dreamlands-1-lives-and-epics-a-fantasy-adventure-comic/description
***** I received this review copy for free. *****
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 31
Violent Pages: 3, for 10% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 2
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 3
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 2
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level –
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
