Jake the Dreaming

Jake the Dreaming
Radical Books
Written by Adam Freeman & Marc Bernardin
Art by Andrew Jones

Ok, I just got a jump on FREE COMIC BOOK DAY and had the chance to read one that’s going to be given out, Jake the Dreaming. Per Radical, it’s an illustrated novel. Not something I’m used to reading. Either a comic book or a novel, I’m good. But I’ve never read anything like this. This version is a teaser for the full one that’s going to be released down the line but it does what it’s supposed to do, tease the appetite for what’s coming down the line.

The layout for this was different. What they did was have one or two pages of full text and then one or two pages of an illustration, I’ve never seen a comic laid out like that before. The writing was sections from the different chapters in the novel. The story, I can describe as a dream within a dream. I liked where the story was going and may pick up the book when it comes out. You want to learn what happens to the characters (or at least I did). The art was not clean and easy to follow, it looks like a jumble of a story or memories, that added to what was going on in the sections given to the reader, another plus.

Overall, I enjoyed the sections that are given and want to know the whole story. What brought the characters to the place they are, why are they the ones who can see what they do, can they do what needs to be done? My only reservation is what comic book purists might say when this untraditional layout comes out. If you want the frame-by-frame story of the standard comic, this book and novel may not be for you. In my humble opinion, get this book and try something different. I gave it 3.5 caps out of 5.