Cbr16bingo Dreams graphic novel features dream sequences, nightmarish horrors and main character’s dream is to become a monster (werewolf)
I reviewed this graphic novel for CBR9 and loved it. The second volume has only just dropped this year and a re-read was needed as I’d forgotten most of the plot over 7 years. This is a story of monsters and horrors, but of course the scariest things are not supernatural but very real and human. Through gorgeous detailed art and skillful storytelling, Emil Ferris creates worlds with monsters of all sorts, whether on middle school playgrounds, Chicago ghettos in 1968, or in interwar/Nazi Germany. There is sex, violence and gore, so this is not for children or for anyone triggered by child/sexual abuse.
Karen Reyes is a girl living in Chicago in 1968 with her ill mother and her older brother Deeze. Karen is obsessed with horror movies and comics, and her fervent desire is to become a werewolf. She longs for a monster to find and “turn” her so that she can protect herself and her family. When their upstairs neighbor Anka is found dead in her apartment by suicide, Karen is suspicious and decides to investigate, leading to several shocking discoveries but no definitive answer regarding Anka’s death.
Karen, who narrates the story, is a very sympathetic character. Given her background — Mexican, Irish and Native American — she was already an outsider at her Catholic school and the frequent object of bullying. Karen’s interest in horror comics and movies, and her imagining of herself as a werewolf (Ferris draws her as a weregirl) further add to her oddball image, but Karen does not care. She would rather be what she is, or preferably a “monster,” than a member of the M.O.B., ie, Mean, Ordinary and Boring. The MOB only believe what they can experience through their senses, and they are scarier and more dangerous than most monsters. Karen’s older brother Deeze is one of the most important people in her life. It is from Deeze that Karen learns about art, making frequent visits to the Art Institute and immersing herself in the paintings there. Literally, Karen enters paintings and interacts with the subjects. She and Deeze are both talented artists, but Deeze is also an adult with adult problems and secrets. First there is the matter of the Vietnam war and the draft. Then there is the matter of Deeze’s sexual involvement with both Anka and the wife of the mob boss upstairs. And finally, there is the question of what incident happened in Deeze’s past that haunts him so in the present. Karen, quite good at eavesdropping, knows something has happened and when she mentions the little information she has to Deeze, he is furious.
Although Karen is ostracized at school, she does find that a few peers are in her corner. Franklin is a gay, black classmate who comes to Karen’s assistance in a moment of great need and who appreciates her knowledge of art. Melissa is a friend who also loves horror movies but whose mother forces her to dump Karen for being poor and weird. Melissa and Karen might have a budding romantic relationship. Finally there is Sandy, a very poor Appalachian girl who is either a figment of Karen’s imagination or a ghost. I’m curious to see where that storylines goes.
The key figure to the novel though is Anka, a beautiful woman who is tormented by her past. Ferris spends a good portion of the story detailing Anka’s story and it is hard to read. Anka’s story involves a prostitute mother, child abuse, sexual assault, and the rise of Nazism. Anka is beautiful but she is also Jewish. When she and others get rounded up to be sent to the camps, Anka reaches out to a powerful man who knew her as a child, and it looks like a deal is going to be made that will follow and haunt Anka once the war is over.
What happened to Anka? What has Deeze done and what will happen to him and Karen? I’m glad book 2 is finally here because this story is riveting and the art is amazing.