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Doktor Sleepless #7

By Patrick Bérubé
June 19, 2008 - 12:20

John Reinhardt broadcasts an illegal radio show where he exposes facts about a number of disturbing things, including the number of deaths per year, and how many tons of feces human beings produce in a year. What he tries to prove with all that is that the future he lives in isn’t worth getting out of bed for in the morning. And that’s not the only thing he tries to accomplish. By distributing masks that can hide a person's ID tag signal and by shutting down police contract zones, John Reinhardt clearly shows that he as a larger plan in mind. But how much social disturbance he is ready to cause to attain this goal we do not yet know…

Warren Ellis is a genius when it comes to writing science-fiction. His vision of the near future is based on actual social changes and technologies, which makes it very credible and scary at the same time. When reading this comic book, I really felt like the future depicted could be my future. But this depiction has a major downside. While reading, I didn’t care that much about what happened to the characters. I was so interested in the concept evoked that I didn’t notice the effort made to build an interesting plot.  That’s why I’m going to say that Doktor Sleepless is not about John Reinhardt but about a promised future that did not happen. And like any good science-fiction, the emphasis is not on the leading character but on the society in which he evolves and how we adapt to new technologies.

I wish I could say that I enjoyed the art as much as the story. Ivan Rodriguez does an all right job but I would have preferred something more dynamic since a lot of talking is involved in this comic book. The repetitive layout of the pages is a good example of something that could have been made more interesting only by varying the panels’ size and shape.

I don’t often recommend waiting for the trade for many reasons, but that’s what I’m going to do for this title. It is a very good monthly read but Ellis clearly writes and thinks in prevision of the trade paperback. There is almost no cut between issue, there is no recap at the beginning, characters are not reintroduced and there is not even a credits page (it’s on the inside front cover).  I suspect that if he could avoid the monthly format and publish directly in graphic novel form, he would do so.

I rate this comic book 9 out 10. It’s a must for any science-fiction fan.

Rating: 9 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12