Finding Potential Stories in "Dreams"

Review by Mike Heronime

Caffeine Dreams, Issues 1 & 2.  Published by DWAP Productions (dwapproductions.com).  Art by Todd Harris, Chris Sogovac, Nick Kunin, Mulele Jarvis, and Astra Price. Written by Dale Wilson, Mark Allyn Stewart, and Geoffrey Thorne.

Caffeine Dreams is an anthology series presenting a variety of stories by different artists and writers.  Thematically speaking, these stories have very little in common. Issue 1 includes a story about a young couple that spot a well-hidden alien spacecraft, a second story about an apocalyptic holy war lead by the ruthless Padre Juan and overseen by an angel and demon with repressed sexual urges for one another, and a third story about a hallucinating gamer who is trying to incorporate his girlfriend into his brotherhood of video game playing friends.

Issue 2 has equally diverse stories.  The first story is a tale about the end of the human race and the Frankenstein inspired beginning of a new race of man.  The second story is a Hyborian Age story about a hard land with a tradition for defeating adventuresome warriors.  And the third story is about a pair of hitmen who share an easy going friendship as they go from one contract hit to the next.

Among these six stories are some shining moments.  The art of Todd Harris in the story titled "Tradition" is well executed with a genuine flair.  His attention to anatomy reminds me of Gil Kane and his wispy treatment of his landscapes creates a believable atmosphere of foreboding. Chris Sagovac's Padre Juan is also a very cool creation.  Sporting a stovepipe hat that would make Lincoln jealous, Padre Juan has all the makings of an iconic villain. And Mark Allyn Stewart's "To Rule in Hell" is a visionary story about the last of a race of immortals who has created a new race of man.  The language and detail of Stewart's story make it easy to accept what would normally be a hard story to swallow.

One story in particular, "The Assassination," is noteworthy for both it's art and script.  Mulele Jarvis delivers the most finished and consistent series of pages in either of these two issues.  The easy going, casual approach to the rendering of the characters is in lock step with the happy-go-lucky tempo of Dale Wilson's script.  The only problem with this story is the same problem shared by all of the stories of Caffeine Dreams — it's unfinished. 

In the case of "The Assassination" the character development aspects of the story have received a lot of polish.  Unfortunately, we are never told anything about the targets of the hitmen, those responsible for the contracts, or their connection to their own assassin who shows up at the end of the story like a deus-ex-machina to clean up a story that wasn't able to find its direction.  By leaving these characters unconnected to the rest of their world, it produces a sailing-without-a-rudder effect that might be typically associated with senseless violence.

I'm sure that Dale Wilson can easily imagine a story that takes the characters of "The Assassination" deeper into their world to find greater meaning and purpose as storytelling devices.  But that kind of deep diving takes time to develop and space to tell it in. 

Unfortunately, Caffeine Dreams' short form approach isn't providing the space necessary for more developed stories.  It's a problem seen in all of the stories in these two issues.  "To Rule in Hell" is a deeply conceived story that lacks the dialog and character development moments that would make it complete. 

Todd Harris' "Big Ships" pencils show promise but are too unfinished to be published in their current form.  Backgrounds are just sketches and even the line quality of the pencils is too inconsistent to be accepted as the sustaining visual approach for this story. 

"On Becoming a Monster" suffers from large gaps in the events of the story that would help to better establish the opposing characters and the events that drive their actions.  These gaps make this story difficult to follow and understand.

Perhaps the greatest failing of Caffeine Dreams is the lettering and word balloons.  Poor font choice, overly large and horsey point sizes, and over use of multiple fonts combined with ill-crafted word balloons create a distraction to the reader by drawing so much attention to themselves and away from the story.  The lettering problem contributes to the overall sense that these books were rushed — produced too fast for their own good.

Taken as a whole, Caffeine Dreams shows promise as a comic book that can deliver a series of interesting, entertaining, and diverse stories.  It enlists some talented artists and inventive writers who appear to be at the beginning of their game.  With time and direction, Caffeine Dreams can become the kind of book that readers will look forward to with eager anticipation.  To get there, the creators of Caffeine Dreams will need to be committed to finishing their work before they go to press.  It might take more time to complete an issue.  It might mean publishing fewer stories in order to give the good stories the space they need.  It might mean being more selective when choosing stories to publish.  But for now, Caffeine Dreams is a comic book with a potential that is equal to its challenges.

DWAP Productions is involved with a comic book and entertainment collective called The Antidote Trust (theantidotetrust.com).