Dreamer #1 by Nic Carcieri and Eric Dotson, Lunarcy by Josh Blair

These two minicomics are about as unlike in content as it's possible to get. But in a way, they complement each other: Dreamer's strength is in the art, while in Lunarcy the story - or rather anti-story - is the thing.

Lunarcy is a series of one-page gag strips about the moon. Not the man in the moon, the goddess Diana, or any other personification, but the cold ball in the sky itself. The humor is strictly of the minimalist - and I mean very minimal - school of David Lynch's strip The Angriest Dog in the World. Example: six panels, five of them showing the exact same image of the moon hovering over the Earth. In panel two, the moon thinks: “I'm bored.” Three panels pass without change. In the sixth panel, the moon crashes into the Earth.

Many people find this sort of thing to be high art, and who am I to argue? Is it funny? Some of them are funny to me. Is it worth a buck? Sure, why not? Is Josh Blair the greatest artist in the world, or the worst? Impossible to tell, and missing the point. These are funnies that Andy Warhol probably would have loved. That will strongly appeal to a certain type of person, and you know who you are.

Dreamer is the first episode of a superhero serial. Eric Dotson's artwork is fine - a bit stiff in the figure work at times, but serviceable, and he manages to get a lot of detail into his tiny panels without making them crowded. But I have to question the approach to the story itself, credited to both Dotson and scripter Nic Carcieri.

First of all, I'm not sure a minicomic is the best way to start a superhero saga. Superhero fans tend to be fond of color and high production values, whereas minis are noted for arty, independent projects. The production on the mini is just fine; I'd recommend the guys bump up to at least digest size to provide a better platform for Dotson's art - which, judging from the cover, would handle the bigger size just fine. It would also allow for more pages inside.

Because the other problem is that this saga spans sixty years and at least three major locations - including an underground base - plus dream sequences. It's not impossible to compress all this into nine 4¼ x 5½ “ pages, but it is a challenge to do so, and I'm not sure Dreamer meets that challenge as strongly as it could. Again, I'd recommend a larger format: give the story room to breathe, to find its own form.

As Shannon Smith noted in his recent review of Portals, Carcieri and company definitely have the production chops to create a great book. I hope they stick with it.