DOKTOR SLEEPLESS #1
© Avatar
Mania Grade: A
Issue: 1
Authors: Warren Ellis, Ivan Rodriguez
Publisher: Avatar
Price: $3.99
Issue: 1
Authors: Warren Ellis, Ivan Rodriguez
Publisher: Avatar
Price: $3.99
DOKTOR SLEEPLESS #1
By: Kurt AmackerReview Date: Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Doktor Sleepless occurs in a world much like our own, where communications technology has advanced radically. The residents of Heavenside can access an instant messaging service called Clatter through a lens implanted in their eyes. A new subculture centered around extreme body modifications has arisen alongside the technology. Its adherents – Grinders – can radically alter themselves, but often do so at great risk. John Reinhardt watches as the youth subculture around him stagnates and waits for those handouts to which it believes itself entitled. The punks and activists of the future overthrow nothing – they merely wait for the flying cars and jetpacks that never came. Reinhardt refashions himself as Doktor Sleepless – a science-hero that intends to galvanize the underground in Heavenside. After a popular club DJ kills himself, Sleepless takes over his webcast and announces his intentions to a youth movement in dire need of a messiah.
My explanation does little justice for this issue or the story to come. Warren Ellis suggests a world far deeper than the bit we read here. In fact, the story crosses into a Wiki available at the Doktor Sleepless website, where Ellis encourages readers to flesh out the world of Heavenside by expounding upon objects, people, and ideas referred to in the comic. Encouraging that participation parallels Doktor Sleepless’s efforts to galvanize the stagnant, apathetic youth culture in the story. In that way, Ellis seems to comment on the underground’s greater allegiance to itself and its superficial trappings than any external ideal. The Grinders want the future, but they’re more apt to reconstruct their bodies than do anything to improve their larger situation. This first issue proves intriguing, but I feel a bit uncomfortable speculating on the story’s larger intentions. Like William Gibson does in Neuromancer, Ellis drops the reader in a world with no omniscient explanation serving as guide. And, he goes a step further and asks the reader to contribute to the world via the Wiki online. It’s a curious approach and I’m interested in the results. I just hope that Ellis and Avatar can get the book out on a regular enough schedule. I’m still waiting on the last issue of Planetary and the next issue of Desolation Jones – both of which aren’t from Avatar, I realize, but still. Ivan Rodriguez does a nice job on the art, with heavy shadows to intensify the drab world of Heavenside and the mystery of the Doktor’s becoming. Doktor Sleepless is a nice-looking book, with art that moves the intriguing story along well.
Pick this one up. Warren Ellis still rules. Let’s just hope this isn’t the last issue for a while.
More From Mania
DOKTOR SLEEPLESS #7
SLEEPLESS KNIGHTS finds new scribe
(Wednesday, October 27, 2004)
Bewitched
(Thursday, May 27, 2004)
Comicscape - November 19, 2003
(Wednesday, November 19, 2003)
Del Toro, Morrisson get DreamWorks to have SLEEPLESS KNIGHTS
(Wednesday, June 5, 2002)
SLEEPLESS
(Sunday, February 24, 2002)
THE X-FILES SEASON 2 BOX SET
(Thursday, November 30, 2000)
See more related content
