Sleeping Beauties #7

Sleeping Beauties #7

IDW Publishing 2020

Based on the Novel by Stephen & Owen King

Adapted by Rio Youers

Illustrated by Alison Sampson

Coloured by Triona Tree Farrell

Lettered by Johanna Nattalie

A strange sleeping sickness, known as Aurora, has fallen over the world, and strangest of all, it only affects women. In the small town of Dooling, a mysterious woman has walked out of the woods; she calls herself Eve and leaves a trail of carnage behind her. More mysterious: she’s the only woman not falling asleep.

With each issue this keeps getting stranger and stranger. Eve has woven a spell of some sort and it just keeps getting darker and more involved. It has been a while since I’ve read and reviewed this series and to be honest I’m a little lost but the gist of it still remains. During the opening of this issue we see how society is trying to reassert itself with women in charge. Now I’m not one hundred percent sure if this is the desired effect but it is definitely interesting to see how the men and women in this story react to the way things here unfold. People fear what they don’t understand and this certainly holds true for those who only know of Eve through the machinations that they see and this causes that insane fear and loathing in her that causes them to act out with violence.

I find the way that this is being told to be infinitely interesting. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter which then keeps their personalities at the forefront of who they are. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more we want to see.

I like how we see this being structured as well as how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. How we see these layers open up new avenues to be explored add some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably rendered.

The interiors here are utterly spectacular. How we see the linework is both delicate and yet strong and with the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work we see is extraordinarily well rendered. How we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story are amazingly well handled. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a great understanding for how colour works.

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Half the time I may not have the full understanding of what is going on but I will say that I am fully invested, engaged and interested in what is transpiring. This world is being recreated and in whose image and for what purpose remains to be fully seen though Eve is doing a great job in utilising the resources at her disposal that’s for dang sure. As we move towards the ending of this story I have to wonder if this is going to suffer from the poor ending syndrome that King is so well known for and I’m hoping that thanks to Owen we’ll see an ending that really works. In the meantime I'm here because I'm dying to see where this is all heading.