Why I Read: After The Dream
This week’s “Why I Read” webcomic review is brought to you by John Kratky of Coffee Time Comics, in his “Read This Webcomic” blog section. This review originally appeared on his blog here.
Everyone believes in conspiracies, but not everyone would consider themselves a conspiracy theorist. The term has become a stigma in our society, one in which the bearer is said to be a tinfoil hat wearing crazy, no matter how much truth exists within the theory itself. This is of course in large part thanks to the people who see conspiracy in everything and tend to take the dumbest route to explanation. You have to Google no further than holographic planes hitting the World Trade center or lizard people making up our government.
The truth is, our entire history is conspiracy. The very formation of America as we know it today was birthed in conspiracy and revolution. But it doesn’t need to be that complicated. You only need two people sitting behind closed doors making a secret plan. Corporate lawyers and congressman creating or adjusting laws is conspiracy. 19 high-jackers taking down planes on 9/11 is conspiracy. Often the most public conspiracies are the most ignored, as in when government uses events to push for more control or get other things they want. While some people look to the towers falling as a government conspiracy, the events that followed such as the Iraq war and the Patriot Act are where the real conspiracies exists in that event.
It’s sad that people who seek truth outside of official stories have been so lambasted in our society when reality is that conspiracy is history, and history is conspiracy.
Synopsis:
I preface this recommendation with this little chat because your interest in the webcomic After the Dream is fully dependent on whether or not you are rolling your eyes. This comic, written by Jeremy Begin (cool last name) with art by a traveling circus of artists (Damon Bowie, Joon Song, Phil Sasko, and Dave Mims), is about government & corporate conspiracies. This is a world of crony capitalism and it’s want of control over the populace and the world’s resources. It involves private armies (no doubt subsidized), pedophile rings, and CIA mind control. In the story, a scientist named Gregory Kincaid is in search of test subjects from the government’s MKUltra program, a very real program that used drugs and various forms of abuse to break the minds of unwitting people. He keeps them at a safe house because they are in constant danger of a company named Advanced Intelligence Services who continue the MKUltra program to this day with the use of a drug called Adonai that Gregory discovered. The main character of After the Dream is Rhyda Izguerra, whose mother was dosed with Adonai while pregnant with her. Rhyda has been hallucinating ever since she was a child, but it’s not until she meets Gregory that she starts to understand that she isn’t actually crazy and there is a reason behind her hallucinations. From there, as she opens her mind, the story slowly develops into a full world of conspiracy, even taking us to the year 2031 for a separate plot. How it will connect to the world of Rhyda and friends in the current storyline is not yet fully seen.
I forgot to mention (if I have to) that this comic may be for a more mature audience as there are boobs, butts, and drugs (oh my) contained within. Nothing I hadn’t seen when I was a kid, but I suppose some people would appreciate this.
Where To Find It:
After the Dream is on Twitter, Facebook, and Comic Rocket. The e-book can be found and purchased at Drive Thru Comics.
Why I Like It:
After the Dream is very much a character-driven drama. As Rhyda discovers the secrets of her past, the world opens more and more. In fact, this comic is an exercise in world-building as it builds one that is rich and deep, weaving history that is real and fake together as one. The author moves us through this world with a researched knowledge of the conspiratorial history of the United States. Now there are people out there that may not think that history is important to them, but it should be. Col. Edward House and Allen Dulles are figures as prominent in our history as Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson, just not as known or talked about in public education. For me, reading a comic based in this world is great fun because I do care about that history, and I also like proactive art. Jeremy Begin wants to tell you something. He wants to lay some seeds that get you interested in things that are actually happening, but are kept swept under the rug. I feel like this is an important piece missing from a lot of modern entertainment.
Things I Think Could Be Better:
The world and the rich characters it contains are the strength of this comic, but it is a strength with a fault which comes in the form of story. At almost 300 pages in, I feel we have hardly been taken out of the first act yet. With seven issues in the current timeline, and 4 in the future, the lack of a developed story might bother some people. For me, because I enjoy the source material (not the horrors of it mind you, but that it is a history that moves me) I don’t mind the slow pace. The world grows consistently with each issue as new history and new characters come into the fold, and while the greater plot is there, the plight against AIS, I feel at the same time that it hasn’t gotten very far into it. If the creator has the ability to keep this thing going for many years, I don’t think this will be a problem. I just don’t want to see the pre-mature death that comes to many webcomics, come to this one, especially if the story could have been told in a shorter amount of time.
That said, while reading I never feel as though I’ve gone astray, only that I’ve been immersed more and more, and I suppose that is what conspiracy does best. It works in layers and connections, not always coherent, but always with a conclusion. Subject matter with such a large and unspoken history (at least in mainstream circles) isn’t easy to tackle. My hope is that Jeremy can keep it going for years as the end product is sure to be quite the tome. If it has taken as long to get to where it currently is, the ending which is nowhere in sight, will be a journey.
Closing Thoughts:
Don’t let any of this dissuade you from reading. I wouldn’t call this series Read This Webcomic! if it wasn’t worth it. Not everything is A to B to C, and the very nature of the internet and its infinite space begs for authors to give us large open-ended stories with depth and history. As a writer, it’s not my thing to do, but as a reader I am interested and immersed and say more power to you. The last issue posted to the website, while offering new elements to the story (Cults!), does seem to be moving towards greater plot momentum.
Besides speaking on plot, the characters themselves are very nicely scripted and feel like real human beings. We aren’t surrounded by heroes here. That’s not to say they don’t have heroic attributes, but their problems are more noticeable than anything else. Everything is on the table in this comic, from psychology to sexuality, and each person has a life story waiting to be told. Not not strictly for the sake of drama, but because the world demands it. For me, it is always important to have an artist who can convey emotion in a character without overdoing it, and the faces of After the Dream do just that. We can see who they are and what they feel and want with simple looks from panel to panel. Not an easy task to get right with a rotating group of artists. I never once felt while reading that anything was over-dramatized.
The art actually changes quite a bit. The current storyline is color, the future is black and white (there may have been budgeting reasons here), and my favorite art of the comic is Rhyda’s hallucinations which have a more angled and sketchy look. The art in the latest issue is very different from the rest with what seems like more of a manga influence. The changes never detract from the story.
Overall, After the Dream is fascinating, a story that dives deep into our own past, and will tackle the unknown future. Part fantasy, part noir, part alternate history, part drama, this webcomic has a lot going for it, and I would love to see it get there. Please donate or buy the e-book so we see that happen.