The Dream Merchant #4

written by Nathan Edmondson
art by Konstantin Novosadov

More than a year after its last issue, The Dream Merchant resumes its sleep-no-more thriller.  The invasion of regulators—the "migration" as the Dream Merchant describes it—has begun at the fringes.  And Winslow is a hero as weakened and deflated himself as his circumstances make him, but he's beginning not only to understand but feel some responsibility, some spark of motivation to save himself and the world.  By the end of the issue, as Winslow seeks sleep alone, downing a bottle of NyQuil in a tub, looking strung out, knowing he will be afraid but doing it anyway, the hero of Edmondson's supernatural fable finally takes his sword.

Nevertheless, Anne continues to be The Dream Merchant's brightest star.  Unflappable in the face of danger and unaccountable weirdness, she keeps her head and her humor, delighted that the trio will find something to eat and and curious to know the Merchant's affection for Earth.  But her rebuff of Winslow's attempt at a good-luck/goodbye kiss that steals the issue, a subversive slap-in-the-face to apocalyptic romances:

"The world is about to end, you're the only one who can stop it and you're thinking about making out?  Pathetic, dude!  Get over it and nut up and go do something!"  (The Dream Merchant #4: 17)

Novosadov's artwork, loopy and shaggy as it may sometimes seem, is unnervingly creepy.  Along with Stefano Simeone's haunting coloring, it gives The Dream Merchant the look of a truly horrific children's story.  Winslow's piercingly white eyes beam out of his hollow, shadowed face as he first wakes from his dream.  The horned monster is something out of a nightmare fantasy.  And the flush of eerie pink, the light that takes his eyes, and his stretched skin as Winslow moves into the dream world is a phantasm of possession and death.  The Dream Merchant may be a beautiful book, but it's one that lingers in the back of your eyes.