Deep Sleeper

(Oni, 2004)
™ and ©2004 Phil Hester and Dave Gibbons

Writers are often instructed to “write what you know,” so, naturally, there are lots of stories about struggling writers. Deep Sleeper is one such story, and it does a nice job of capturing the trials and tribulations of the writing life, especially one that is encumbered by (and, ironically, supported by) a wife and kids. Anyone who has ever had to decide who should take “the good car” on a given day will relate to the down-to-earth human elements of this story.

But, alas, Deep Sleeper is much more than a simple tale about a proud family man who gets paid 1½¢ per word. Among other elements, it involves a recurring nightmare, spiritual warfare, personal responsibility, transcendental meditation, humankind’s place in the universe, the struggle to find one’s self, and the yearning to try something different.

The struggling-writer angle provides firm grounding for the mind-expanding (or mind-numbing, depending on the reader’s tolerance for surrealism and nonlinear storytelling) supernatural elements, making this an involving, deeply satisfying reading experience. And the art, which alternates adeptly between the real and the unreal, only adds to the richness of the story.

— Brett Weiss

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