The Dreaming vol. 1

I didn't have to wait too long to find a use for that gift card: Fushigi Yuugi vol, 17 just showed up on our shelves. Emboldened by that sense that gift cards bestow of not actually being the one to pay, I also finally followed up on the impulse to try an OEL manga. I kept picking up things like Steady Beat and Dramacon and going..."eh...not today," but Queenie Chan's The Dreaming has gotten very good press--and, well, it's damned pretty. And purple. It seemed like it was time.

The "what makes manga?" debate can smoulder on with or without me, but I'm happy to say that whatever The Dreaming is, it's excellent. It's got the art, storytelling, je nois se quoi that makes you want to keep reading after the third page. I will definitely buy the other books when they appear, and happily recommend this one to customers.

Oh, and it's creepy as fuck. Reading it alone in the apartment at 4am might have been a mistake.

I should qualify that, whatever it ends up defined as, the experience of reading The Dreaming was more like reading manga than like reading American comics, even indie American comics. I'm sure the format--tankoban style, with a Tokyopop label on it--had something to do with it, but I think that's also the artist's intention coming through. Props. I'm never averse to new talent in comics of any genre, but if I buy OEL manga, it'll be because I want the experience of reading manga-style comics, not because I'll try every new things to show up in comics. I should have a budget.