LUCY DREAMING (9 out of 10) Written by Max Bemis; Drawn by Michael Dialynas; Letters by Colin Bell and Ed Duekshire; Published by BOOM! Studios; In stores 01/09/2019.
Most of the time we read comic books to find some sort of escape from the real world. Sometimes we feel like our lives are so boring, we need to dip inside an alternate reality, just to feel alive. I know, for myself, when I was a kid I basically dreamt in comics. In animated universes, flying through space-even though it would probably never happen-leading some epic battle as a rogue princess, betrayed by her own kind. Sometimes I didn’t even need to be asleep to play certain story lines out inside my mind. I simply lived in a fantasy world, just so that I felt like my life had meaning.
Lucy Dreaming gives you a look inside the mind of someone that lives in a world where the dreams they have aren’t dreams at all, but actuality. Lucy is a 13-year-old, self-proclaimed loser with a chip on her shoulder who should, instead, be a child prodigy. Unhappy with the life she’s currently living, she dives into her books to put herself into an alternate dimension in which she actually respects the role she plays.
As she struggles to embrace the changes that her body goes through as a teenager, she notices that something isn’t quite right. Naturally, she turns to her parents for guidance. Mom and Dad are what Lucy refers to as ‘Mad Scientists’, but it doesn’t seem like they can help with the changes SHE’S experiencing. When she dreams, it feels different. It feels real. Pain, emotions, loss of control, it’s all too real when she is sleeping.
Unbeknownst to Lucy, her parents exposed her to an invention of theirs when she was very young and may have unknowingly changed her life forever. Now that she is going through puberty, it’s all coming to fruition. She’s even more angry than usual when she is informed that it’s at the hands of her own family.
This story gives readers the opportunity to relate to the ultra-weird inside all of us. Just when you think you know where it’s heading, POW, it takes another turn for something truly unpredictable. You’ll get to experience all of the things a 13-year-old would normally experience, only it’ll be amplified and exaggerated to powerful limits.
The artwork is classic and stunning on the pages. Detailed, easy to follow, and beautiful to observe. My only complaint is that I can’t read more! I look forward to seeing what happens next.