The three protagonists.
"In Slumber, all that you consider real is in your head. And everything that's in your head... is real. Not to mention the waking nightmares. Where else could we be... but a dream?"
— Echo, Book 1: The Pearl (Page 1.164)
SlumberTown is an anthro webcomic series following the adventures of Romy, Boone and Echo as they work to uncover the mysteries of what brought the 32 residents of Slumber to the strange, dreamy ghost town.
What brought them there? What's keeping them there? And how will they find their way home?
The series is a psychological mystery revolving around themes of community, trauma, mental illness and self-discovery. The world of Slumber is whimsical yet heartwarming with a Found Family feel. It's written and illustrated by Macxi. It launched originally on February 4th, 2019 and is still ongoing.
The town of Slumber is known to have many strange properties. The residents have come to theorize that they're living in a "collective dreamscape" that each resident shares and perceives in their own unique way. Perhaps one of the more staple properties of Slumber is the waking nightmares the residents experience in their daily lives, usually as a result of traumas or insecurities from their past or present. Most of the residents have fuzzy memories regarding their lives before Slumber, often forgetting, repressing or suddenly recalling memories from those lives.
Romy is the newest resident to come to Slumber, and she has ambitions of becoming a therapy dog but has debilitating social anxiety, which makes it difficult for her to overcome doubts and fears and connect with the people around her. Over time, as she settles into the town, she learns to open up and connect to the other residents through their trauma and discovers that role as a therapy dog.
Romy works at the Lost and Found with Boone and Echo, where she assists in finding "lost things" — from family heirlooms to missing children and everything in between. It's often during these fetch quests that the trio gets tied up into the bigger mysteries surrounding the town. With Echo working part-time as a detective, we quickly learn that there's a LOT more to Slumber than first meets the eye.
It can be read here
but can also be found on Tapas, ComicFury, and more recently Webtoon where a Spanish adaptation of the comic by Roque Mapache and Ink Fox Prints is being worked on.
SlumberTown has the following tropes:
A town celebration at the saloon!
- Acting Unnatural: Romy has many instances where she tries to "act natural" but ends up acting much more awkward than she would've if she had ACTUALLY acted naturally. (That was a joke. You're supposed to laugh at jokes, right? HAHAHA!)
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Characters in Slumber often show physical affection in this way. Seen most commonly in Boone giving Romy noogies and gentle headbutts, and Echo petting or scratching Romy's head affectionately.
- Affectionate Nickname: Nicknames are also commonly used between the friendly folk of Slumber. Examples consist of Boone calling Romy "Rom-ster" or Echo calling her "new girl".
- A Friend in Need: A recurring trope in Slumber Town, usually from Romy's POV as she realizes she needs to brave her own fears and adversities in order to help a friend or a resident with their traumas. Romy can also be on the receiving end, but a big staple of her character arcs often involve following her drive to help others.
- Appearance Angst: Boone is shown to be insecure about his small horns, as larger horns are usually seen as a symbol of strength and masculinity.
- Autism in Media: Romy is autistic which often shows through her difficulties with socializing and hypersensitivies (including hyper-empathy).
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Many of the characters in Slumber Town are barefoot most of the time. Characters can still wear shoes and socks but it's not often part of their regular attire.
- Brains and Brawn: Boone's physical prowess and Echo's sneaky intellect can make them a bit of a power duo.
- The Confidant: Because Echo can be fairly private, secretive and meticulous, she often entrusts certain information to specific people. Romy, Boone and Dallas all (sometimes unknowingly) play the role of confidant to Echo as she tends to trust them with different secrets.
- Dream Land: Slumber Town takes place in the collective dreamscape of the 32 resident characters who live there.
- Driving Question: The plot of the ongoing series in Arc 1 revolves around solving the questions "why and how did we get to Slumber?" and "how do we find our way out"?.
- Expressive Ears: Many of the mammalian characters express emotions with their ears in various ways, like perking, flattening and twitching. Characters may sometimes pull their ears in frustration or distress.
- Family of Choice: A lot of the characters in Slumber treat each other like family members. Examples are Boone taking on the role of "big brother" to Romy and Echo or Dallas acting as a bit of a father figure to the various residents.
- Forgetful Jones: One of Boone's major character flaws is that he tends to be incredibly forgetful.
- Furry Reminder: The characters in Slumber Town act human... for the most part. Many of them have species and animal-specific quirks and behaviors though, like Romy's barking, Boone's headbutting with his horns, and Echo having abilities such as flying and echolocation. Their food and diets may also be species-specific, like Romy's dog bone cookies, Boone's love for corn and Echo drinking blood-infused beverages.
- Ghost Town: Slumber resembles a desert ghost town, with a population of 32 residents who live within the town's borders.
- His Own Worst Enemy: A commonly recurring trope in Slumber Town. A lot of the major conflicts involve characters having to overcome their own adversities and insecurities.
- Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio: The main trio in Slumber is pretty gender balanced. Romy is non-binary and presents androgynous, Boone is a somewhat effeminate man and Echo is a fairly masculine woman.
- Mysterious Past: Echo doesn't seem to talk about her past all that much. Actually, she doesn't seem to talk about her past AT ALL.
- Mysterious Stranger: Dr. Janus White Ph.D is a recurring character who appears briefly outside of the main story. Her identity and connection to the residents of Slumber remains a mystery to the reader through Arc 1.
- Nightmare Sequence: A recurring theme in Slumber Town. Many characters who live in Slumber experience "waking nightmares" - nightmare sequences that arise from fear, insecurity or trauma.
- The Nose Knows: Romy has an enhanced sense of smell that can detect emotions and feelings. It's usually used in correlation with her empath abilities, but she can locate people by scent too.
- Opaque Nerd Glasses: Echo wears a pair of glasses that occasionally obscure her eyes. It's usually symbolic of Echo shielding or repressing emotions, both intentionally and unintentionally.
- Prone to Tears: Romy is pretty sensitive and can be a bit of a crier. She sometimes has trouble holding back tears and often feels embarrassed about crying in front of others.
- Shrinking Violet: Romy has social anxiety and can be pretty shy and withdrawn as a result.
- Supernatural Phone: Romy is the only person in Slumber with a cellphone, and her cellphone has the peculiar ability to connect Romy to a mysterious caller via telepathy.
- Trauma Button: Oftentimes through the series, characters experience triggers that re-awaken repressed or forgotten memories from their past.
- Book 1: The Pearl: An earlier conflict between the trio triggers an emotional response in Romy, who later has a nightmare where she's faced with her past insecurities being repeated to her by furniture come to life.
- SE 1: Partly Cloudy: Boone is triggered when he overhears Heather and Gavin pitying him, sending him into a panicked frenzy that leads him into a nightmare involving the trauma of his childhood bully.
- Visible Odor: Through Romy's POV, we are usually able to see odors and scents weaving around characters, objects and locations.
- Wingding Eyes: Boone's pupils can be fairly expressive, changing to horizontal goat pupils, hearts, stars, etc. His pupils form in the shape of clouds whenever he's inattentive or has his "head in the clouds", so to speak.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Characters in Slumber are sometimes able to manifest things or bend the world around them using imagination alone. Because you have to actively imagine things to make them exist (and keep them existing), it works great for things like food or a tool you might need in a pinch. Pants? Not so much.
Tropes found in Book 1: The Pearl:
Romy and Echo before they ascend a path of stars on a Journey to the Sky.
- Bigger on the Inside: The pearl's illusions cause the shabby Slumber motel to appear like a much bigger and spacious hotel with a ballroom when the trio ascends to the second floor.
- Black Sheep: Boone briefly flashes back to his family life prior to Slumber where it's confirmed he had trouble fitting into his home life and meeting the conservative expectations of his parents.
- Breathless Non Sequitur: On page 164, Echo nonchalantly makes the absurd implication that she knows the feeling of "your soul detaching from your body" and how it doesn't match the vibe she gets from Slumber.
- Catapult Nightmare: Romy wakes up abruptly in her bed after falling off her bike in a dream that felt very real.
- Comical Coffee Cup: On page 164, Echo is seen materializing a coffee mug that says "I love Nonedays" - an "I hate Mondays" joke inferring that nobody in Slumber actually knows what day it is.
- Door of Doom: On page 92, Romy is presented with "Door 2A" - the door to her motel room - appearing much more ominous as it contains a nightmare within.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: In Romy's New Bork dream, she is given what feels like a prophetic message to "follow the stars", though it's vague and not entirely clear.
- Dream Reality Check: Romy realizes she's having a nightmare after being confronted by a giant cactus with boxing gloves. She tries to pinch herself awake shortly before she's startled by the buzzing of her phone.
- Embarrassing Ringtone: Romy's cellphone has "Here Comes the Sun" as its ringtone. After embarrassing her when it goes off in front of her coworkers, we can probably infer she's made sure to set it to vibrate.
- Flat Scare: On page 87, a ghost hand whispers "boo" in Boone's ear to send him in a comedic state of panic.
- Floating in a Bubble: Romy is often seen trapped inside a metaphorical bubble. It's typically symbolic of Romy feeling trapped by her social anxiety and unable to break free.
- Group Hug: "Aw yeah! Space jam with the fam!"
- Her Boyfriend's Jacket: In the transition following Romy's breakdown, she's seen wearing Echo's coat. This can be inferred as Echo's way of comforting Romy, but also an early sign that she's interested in Romy (as more than just a friend).
- Journey to the Sky: In the resolution scene of The Pearl, Romy, Echo and Boone ascend to outer space via a path of stars drudged up by Romy's imagination. This is shown as a demonstration by Echo of how parts of the town can be "manipulated" using the psyche, but it's also symbolic of Romy letting loose and finding a path toward connection with her two new friends.
- Moving Angst: Romy finds it a bit tough to get adjusted to her new life in Slumber. She gets a little homesick and depressed when her first day on the job doesn't turn out exactly the way she hoped.
- Offering a Hand: Several instances involve characters extending their hands to Romy. Romy taking the hands offered to her is often symbolic of her desire for connection.
- "Open!" Says Me: In pages 30-31, Boone rams open the door to the Lost and Found break room head first with his horns to wake Echo up from her nap.
- Poor Communication Kills: Boone lashes at Echo when he feels she's criticizing him for being absentminded. This is partly due to his rejection sensitivity dysphoria easily triggering him and causing him to act out irrationally.
- Rapid Aging: While Romy and Boone are in the "The Persistence of Memory" painting, they age very quickly and suddenly in a nightmare surrounding existential fear.
- Shower of Angst: Romy has a depression shower while stewing in feelings of disconnect.
- Spooky Painting: Boone is seen staring at the Meowna Lisa whose eyes shift to look at him when he pulls away. There's also a sequence involving Romy and Boone being tossed around in famous paintings with nightmare scenarios, including "The Scream", "The Great Wave off Kanagawa", and "The Persistence of Memory".
- Stargazing Scene: The resolution scene of The Pearl involves the trio gazing down at the stars over Slumber from the surface of the moon.
- Strong Family Resemblance: From what we've seen in various flashbacks, Romy seems to closely resemble her mother both in appearance and disposition.
- Sudden Lack of Signal: When Romy first comes to Slumber, she realizes she's unable to get service on her cellphone.
- Talking in Your Dreams: Romy is able to establish a telepathic connection to The Caller on her phone while dreaming about herself in New Bork.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Boone reveals that he has phasmophobia, a fear of ghosts, right before the trio is about to explore the haunted Slumber motel. He ends up being a prime victim for Walt, the prankster, who takes advantage of his fear to tease and spook him.
- You're Not My Type: Echo shuts down Lester's flirting by saying he's "far from" her type. Considering she's not attracted to men, that's a pretty fair judgment call.
Tropes found in Special Episode 1: Partly Cloudy:
Boone conjuring a licorice tornado with his mind.
- Big Brother Mentor: Boone starts to act like a bit of a big brother mentor to Romy.
- Dream Weaver: Ken is established to be someone in Slumber who lucid dreams quite often. He's able to use this ability to dream about storm chasing - one of his hobbies!
- Flashback Nightmare: Boone experiences flashbacks from his past while suspended in his licorice tornado nightmare.
- Funnel Cloud Journey: Boone and Romy are swallowed by a licorice tornado, and Romy has to brave the storm in order to break through to Boone.
- Going in Circles: In chapter 3, Boone leads Romy down unnaturally weaving paths of taffy toward their destination. Instead of finding their way to the end, however, they end up looping back to the same place they started.
- Heat Wave: Partly Cloudy starts off during one of the hotter days in Slumber. It's EXTRA sun!
- Man-Eating Plant: He may not viciously gobble people (aside from nibbling them ferociously) but Kumo is Ken's pet that resembles a carnivorous plant. He's a weather trap that can consume and distribute various types of weather.
- Ominous Clouds: The cotton candy clouds in Boone's dream become darker and more ominous shortly before a thunderstorm kicks up.
- Personal Raincloud: Boone and Romy obtain their own personal snowclouds after being nibbled by Kumo.
- Shared Dream: Boone and Ken's separate dreams end up merging while they're both dreaming in close proximity to each other.
- Super Wheelchair: Ken often has lucid dreams about storm chasing where his wheelchair is transformed into a storm chasing ATV.
Tropes found in miscellanous Slumber Town content:
- Domestic Appliance Disaster: In the 2020 holiday special, Echo accidentally makes a huge mess in the kitchen while trying to bake Slumbermas desserts because her dyscalculia causes her to follow the recipes incorrectly.
- Everyone Hates Fruit Cakes: In the 2020 holiday special, Boone is teased by Lester about his love for fruitcake saying "even hyenas have standards".
