A Dream - Art within art

A Dream is written and self published by David Goei, which incorporates the works of two famous poets, illustrated and coloured by Serene Lau, song performed by (yes that's right, song) Jonathan Ong. I was originally drawn to A Dream because of the glorious cover, as I've mentioned many times before I just love anything colourful, especially watercolour, I honestly knew nothing else about it so I wasn't quite prepared to read A Dream.

A Dream begins with a young girl, Victoria, drifting off into a beautiful dream world. As she enjoys the colourful world around her she comes across a lost and exhausted mother ant who has become separated from her family. After hearing the ant's tale of woe they set off on an adventure across the dream world to find her family. On my first read through I didn't think that there was going to be much of a story behind in A Dream and that the entire thing was more of an excuse to create an art book with beautiful and fantastical imagery. I love anything whimsical so I didn't mind the lack of story but then, in a matter of a few pages I quickly changed my tune.

A Dream's first few panels are done in entirely blue and white but then the comic suddenly explodes with enough colour to make a rainbow look dull by comparison. Every page is a mixture of all the colour of a Disney movie with the design of a more traditional fairy tale and are an absolute delight to look at. With every read through of A Dream I notice something new, as small as a frog wearing a hat or kangaroos in the background. The little girl in the story is cute but still has the realistic look of a child which is nice to see rather than an angelic looking cherub with perfect hair and clothes. The artist perfectly captures the child's expressions ranging from joy, sadness and wonder and despite the complete lack of dialogue from the child allows the reader to easily interpret her mood.

A Dream is the first comic I've ever even heard of with an accompanying song; now don't get me wrong I know probably less than nothing about music but the beautifully haunting melody of A Dream's theme song perfectly compliments the story allowing the highs and lows to echo just a little bit deeper. A Dream is a beautiful comic with a surprising amount of depth. I'd recommend A Dream to long term comic readers and fans of poetry. 

I give A Dream 4 out of 5 ice-cream lizards.

Find out more about A Dream here and more about the author here.