Dreamless is another completed graphic novel/webcomic drawn by Sarah Ellerton, although written by Bobby Crosby. It's beautiful, touching and very easy and quick to read, I just finished it within an hour on the most recent reread and the experience was utterly worth it.
It follows the life of a young girl who, when she sleeps, experiences the life of a Japanese boy born the same day, she looks through his eyes and feels what he feels and he does likewise when he sleeps. They can't hold a conversation with each other, but they talk so that the other one can listen. But in many ways they don't need a full conversation, if you lived as another person their whole life, then you understand what goes through their head, what they're thinking and how they can react. When they were younger they used to ask each other questions. but later on they realised they already knew the answer.
And the love between two people must be huge, almost complete and utter empathy, sharing every moment of their lives and if they choose to sleep at the same time there's only blackness where normally they would have a whole life. Despite having never seen each other and despite the setting being Japan and the US just before the outbreak of WW 2 it understandable that they're completely devoted to each other.
The only other real character in the story is the girl's father who has a complicated life and a complicated relationship with his daughter, it's interesting and very delicately told.
But here's the catch to this all. It's readable in under an hour because what I've described is the full extent of the story, their lives aren't explained, it's clear they withdraw from the world around them but it's not explored and we see nothing of the differences in culture between the two countries or the similarities.
People say it was a wasted opportunity and in a way, yes it was. There was so much that could have been done with this idea and almost nothing was done, but if you only expect it to be fast sketch, powerful and emotional but telling the story with the barest details that can get the ideas across, then there's nothing not worth while about this amazing (and beautiful) novel.
If you felt the life of another person half way across the world
Dreamless is another completed graphic novel/webcomic drawn by Sarah Ellerton, although written by Bobby Crosby. It's beautiful, touching and very easy and quick to read, I just finished it within an hour on the most recent reread and the experience was utterly worth it.
It follows the life of a young girl who, when she sleeps, experiences the life of a Japanese boy born the same day, she looks through his eyes and feels what he feels and he does likewise when he sleeps. They can't hold a conversation with each other, but they talk so that the other one can listen. But in many ways they don't need a full conversation, if you lived as another person their whole life, then you understand what goes through their head, what they're thinking and how they can react. When they were younger they used to ask each other questions. but later on they realised they already knew the answer.
And the love between two people must be huge, almost complete and utter empathy, sharing every moment of their lives and if they choose to sleep at the same time there's only blackness where normally they would have a whole life. Despite having never seen each other and despite the setting being Japan and the US just before the outbreak of WW 2 it understandable that they're completely devoted to each other.
The only other real character in the story is the girl's father who has a complicated life and a complicated relationship with his daughter, it's interesting and very delicately told.
But here's the catch to this all. It's readable in under an hour because what I've described is the full extent of the story, their lives aren't explained, it's clear they withdraw from the world around them but it's not explored and we see nothing of the differences in culture between the two countries or the similarities.
People say it was a wasted opportunity and in a way, yes it was. There was so much that could have been done with this idea and almost nothing was done, but if you only expect it to be fast sketch, powerful and emotional but telling the story with the barest details that can get the ideas across, then there's nothing not worth while about this amazing (and beautiful) novel.