Jim Lemoine
Apr 2, 2003, 02:37 pm
<img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/columns/chimarvel_logo.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="Chimerical Marvel">By Douglass Barre, blackflak@aol.com
The Sleepwalker #1-6 (1967)
The Nineties were a period of widescale expansion for Marvel, and there were a great deal of highly touted "1st Issue! Collector's Item!" books trying to recapture the creative inventiveness of the early days of Marvel. Some of those titles were aspiring fresh new ideas with names like Darkhawk or Blackwulf... but one of the most egregious "new" attempts was the 1991 series by Bob Budiansky and Bret Blevins, Sleepwalker.
What most people don't know was that in 1967, Stan Lee and veteran illustrator Wally Wood (fresh from his stint on Daredevil) co-created a series called The Sleepwalker featuring the same character... or at least a remarkable likeness.
Who can tell it better than Stan? "What nightmares dwell behind the eyes of the sleeper? What nocturnal perils wait to break into the waking realms? What chance do we have against the deepest terrors of our souls? Only one being stands between these mind-scape marauders and our soporific safety... the somnambulant spectre himself... The Sleepwalker!"
So begins the tale of the Sleepwalker, a gaunt ghost from the netherworld of nightmare... gah, now he's got me doing it! Sent to protect the waking world from escaped creatures of the dreamlands, this alien being enters our world through young Ricky Sheridan, his best friend. Together, the boy and his dream face off against enemies from both worlds, at least until a distribution snafu caused the book to fold after only six issues.
The first issue is a classic Lee origin... a young boy has a dream, and in it finds a mysterious diamond-shaped badge. Without thinking, he places it on his shirt, and the dream creatures are afraid of him... confused, he finds it impossible to wake up from the strange vision. Meanwhile, in Ricky's room, a mysterious purple-cowled spook rises from Ricky's sleeping body.
"I... I am... awake!" he cries out in surprise. "This must not be!"
In fear, he flies through Ricky's window and floats over the city streets above... until he sees a pair of bank robbers making their getaway.
"Their garb is strange... but their actions are not! Even in this world, it seems, there are still wrongs to be righted... by the Sleep-Walker!" (By the second issue, the hyphenation in "Sleepwalker" had been dropped.) The Sleepwalker uses his "oneiric warp-beams" to transform the robbers' getaway car into a six-legged metal insect that holds them tight for the proper authority.
Suddenly the spectre senses Ricky beginning to awaken. "I must return to him 'ere he wakes, lest the passage in his mind between the lands of slumber and consciousness be left open! Who knows what might escape if such a thing occurred!" Fortunately, he makes it back in the nick of time... and Ricky wakes up in his bed. Was it all a dream? Of course not: the mysterious diamond badge is still clutched in his hands.
Issue two begins with familiar Dr. Strange villain Nightmare taking notice of the Sleepwalker's "badge of office," his "Imagi-nator." (Unfortunately, that particular hyphen doesn't get dropped until the 1991 Budianski series, but I digress.) Nightmare decides that the time is ripe to try to sneak past the Sleepwalker into the waking world to wreak havoc. To this end, he sends a minor nightmare through the portal in little Ricky's mind. This nightmare bonds with a small-time crook looking for a gimmick, and becomes the "suzerain of sin", the madcap Eightball. When Ricky nods off during a geography lesson, the Sleepwalker once again returns to Marvel earth, at first to look for his Imagi-nator, but when he senses the escaped dream, he decides instead "to stop any who would befoul the waking world with the darker shades of man's inner soul." The villain is defeated, but before he can recover the Imagi-nator from Ricky's backpack, the Sleepwalker is sucked back to the mind-scape when the class bell rings, awakening young master Sheridan.
Issue three features The Insomniac, a villain who, in his own words, "...never sleeps! It gives me the power to channel my own nightmares to give me great powers!" From his citadel in the mind-scape, the Sleepwalker watches this new terror but is unable to do anything because Ricky won't go to sleep. Finally, the Sleepwalker himself leaps through the Insomniac's own dream pipeline and is able to defeat the villain with his own powers. As the Insomniac finally falls to sleep, the Sleepwalker is able to momentarily speak to onlooker Ricky, telling him that he needs his Imagi-nator back... but vanishes before he can warn Ricky exactly why.
The Sleepwalker's ongoing quest to recover his power-badge is put on hold in issue four, where he battles a Russian witch transformed by dinosaur DNA, the utterly forgettable Lee villain "the Strega-Saurus!" There is no further details about the dream-scape or the Sleepwalker's mysterious job, but it is notable that Ricky Sheridan somehow knows that "...if I can only go to sleep, the Sleepwalker will be able to stop her!..." something he had no idea of before, let alone the name of his nocturnal benefactor.
Issue five is an exciting turnaround for the series, as we get a much more detailed look at the nature of the Sleepwalker and his true nature. "Mystery of the Night-Mask!" shows us the first extended encounter between Ricky and the Sleepwalker when the boy goes to an experimental sleep doctor, Dr. Remsen, who uses a device called the "Night-Mask" to "project [Ricky] still awake into [his] own subconscious!" While there, Ricky finds his way to the citadel of the Sleepwalker and is told of the being's sacred duty:
"We Sleepwalkers defend all mankind from the dark dreams that wait for any opportunity to burst forth into your world! However, something has happened that has opened strange doors... in minds like yours... between our two realms! Only with your assistance may I find these doors... and close them!"
Together, the two travel through a strange dreamscape in search of the opening in Ricky's subconscious mind. They're briefly separated, but finally find the portal... and Ricky is shocked when the Sleepwalker's image shimmers... to be replaced by Nightmare, standing over a defeated Sleepwalker!
The second part of the story takes place in the final issue, #6, "Strange Dreams!" Nighmare uses the portal in Ricky's mind to enter the waking earth with an army of minions. This incursion alerts his arch-enemy Dr. Strange (this issue's obvious guest star) who attempts to hold off the invasion with his mystic arts. Unfortunately, that requires so much of his power, he is unable to determine where the invasion is coming from. Fortunately (for us, at least) Ricky and the Sleepwalker have been forgotten by Nightmare. Ricky leads the Sleepwalker back into the real world, to his bedroom where the Imagi-nator is kept hidden. With the power of the Imagi-nator, the Sleepwalker is able to ally with Dr. Strange and drive back Nightmare and his... well, nightmares. Afterwards, Ricky and the Sleepwalker agree to assist each other for the protection of Earth, and as the young boy dozes off in his bed, the somnambulant spook returns to the mind-scape, once more empowered with his Imagi-nator.
Unfortunately, issue six was the final issue of The Sleepwalker. Due to a proposed distribution experiment, The Sleepwalker was only sent to the Midwest periodical district, but sales figures were never reproportioned, making it appear to be the worst selling title in Marvel's post-Timely history. By the time the error was found, Wally Wood had left Marvel and Stan Lee had moved on to other projects. The 1991 series, while sharing some overt similarities, had a completely different continuity than the 1967 book, which was mostly overlooked (except by diehard Kansas City fans) and is not considered Marvel canon.
So we'll never know what happened to the sleeping version of Ricky Sheridan, left, forgotten, in the Night-Mask, thirty-six years ago.
<center><hr width=75%></center>
Douglass Barre is currently the writer of Mythstalkers from Image Comics and the creator of his own line of Chimerical Comics available at www.blackflak.com. Yes, he lives in his own little world, and no, you can't get him out.
<center><hr width=75%></center>
Before you waste a lot of time driving store to store to track down this week's featured title, please click here (http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16839) to make sure you've gotten the joke. We also sincerely warn you not to buy any Chimerical Marvel titles online, no matter how nice the seller seems.
Marvel Comics and their characters, stories and situations are (c) and (tm) Marvel Comics. Existant Marvel Comics creators and editorial staff are real people, and therefore (c) and (tm) themselves and are used here as a fictional depiction or personality parody. Non-existant Marvel Comics creators and editoral staff are entirely fictional characters and any similarities to persons living or dead are accidental and coincidental. CHIMERICAL MARVEL is a satire and/or parody (depending on the week) and not intended maliciously, but out of love. I love you, Harry S. Truman.
The Sleepwalker #1-6 (1967)
The Nineties were a period of widescale expansion for Marvel, and there were a great deal of highly touted "1st Issue! Collector's Item!" books trying to recapture the creative inventiveness of the early days of Marvel. Some of those titles were aspiring fresh new ideas with names like Darkhawk or Blackwulf... but one of the most egregious "new" attempts was the 1991 series by Bob Budiansky and Bret Blevins, Sleepwalker.
What most people don't know was that in 1967, Stan Lee and veteran illustrator Wally Wood (fresh from his stint on Daredevil) co-created a series called The Sleepwalker featuring the same character... or at least a remarkable likeness.
Who can tell it better than Stan? "What nightmares dwell behind the eyes of the sleeper? What nocturnal perils wait to break into the waking realms? What chance do we have against the deepest terrors of our souls? Only one being stands between these mind-scape marauders and our soporific safety... the somnambulant spectre himself... The Sleepwalker!"
So begins the tale of the Sleepwalker, a gaunt ghost from the netherworld of nightmare... gah, now he's got me doing it! Sent to protect the waking world from escaped creatures of the dreamlands, this alien being enters our world through young Ricky Sheridan, his best friend. Together, the boy and his dream face off against enemies from both worlds, at least until a distribution snafu caused the book to fold after only six issues.
The first issue is a classic Lee origin... a young boy has a dream, and in it finds a mysterious diamond-shaped badge. Without thinking, he places it on his shirt, and the dream creatures are afraid of him... confused, he finds it impossible to wake up from the strange vision. Meanwhile, in Ricky's room, a mysterious purple-cowled spook rises from Ricky's sleeping body.
"I... I am... awake!" he cries out in surprise. "This must not be!"
In fear, he flies through Ricky's window and floats over the city streets above... until he sees a pair of bank robbers making their getaway.
"Their garb is strange... but their actions are not! Even in this world, it seems, there are still wrongs to be righted... by the Sleep-Walker!" (By the second issue, the hyphenation in "Sleepwalker" had been dropped.) The Sleepwalker uses his "oneiric warp-beams" to transform the robbers' getaway car into a six-legged metal insect that holds them tight for the proper authority.
Suddenly the spectre senses Ricky beginning to awaken. "I must return to him 'ere he wakes, lest the passage in his mind between the lands of slumber and consciousness be left open! Who knows what might escape if such a thing occurred!" Fortunately, he makes it back in the nick of time... and Ricky wakes up in his bed. Was it all a dream? Of course not: the mysterious diamond badge is still clutched in his hands.
Issue two begins with familiar Dr. Strange villain Nightmare taking notice of the Sleepwalker's "badge of office," his "Imagi-nator." (Unfortunately, that particular hyphen doesn't get dropped until the 1991 Budianski series, but I digress.) Nightmare decides that the time is ripe to try to sneak past the Sleepwalker into the waking world to wreak havoc. To this end, he sends a minor nightmare through the portal in little Ricky's mind. This nightmare bonds with a small-time crook looking for a gimmick, and becomes the "suzerain of sin", the madcap Eightball. When Ricky nods off during a geography lesson, the Sleepwalker once again returns to Marvel earth, at first to look for his Imagi-nator, but when he senses the escaped dream, he decides instead "to stop any who would befoul the waking world with the darker shades of man's inner soul." The villain is defeated, but before he can recover the Imagi-nator from Ricky's backpack, the Sleepwalker is sucked back to the mind-scape when the class bell rings, awakening young master Sheridan.
Issue three features The Insomniac, a villain who, in his own words, "...never sleeps! It gives me the power to channel my own nightmares to give me great powers!" From his citadel in the mind-scape, the Sleepwalker watches this new terror but is unable to do anything because Ricky won't go to sleep. Finally, the Sleepwalker himself leaps through the Insomniac's own dream pipeline and is able to defeat the villain with his own powers. As the Insomniac finally falls to sleep, the Sleepwalker is able to momentarily speak to onlooker Ricky, telling him that he needs his Imagi-nator back... but vanishes before he can warn Ricky exactly why.
The Sleepwalker's ongoing quest to recover his power-badge is put on hold in issue four, where he battles a Russian witch transformed by dinosaur DNA, the utterly forgettable Lee villain "the Strega-Saurus!" There is no further details about the dream-scape or the Sleepwalker's mysterious job, but it is notable that Ricky Sheridan somehow knows that "...if I can only go to sleep, the Sleepwalker will be able to stop her!..." something he had no idea of before, let alone the name of his nocturnal benefactor.
Issue five is an exciting turnaround for the series, as we get a much more detailed look at the nature of the Sleepwalker and his true nature. "Mystery of the Night-Mask!" shows us the first extended encounter between Ricky and the Sleepwalker when the boy goes to an experimental sleep doctor, Dr. Remsen, who uses a device called the "Night-Mask" to "project [Ricky] still awake into [his] own subconscious!" While there, Ricky finds his way to the citadel of the Sleepwalker and is told of the being's sacred duty:
"We Sleepwalkers defend all mankind from the dark dreams that wait for any opportunity to burst forth into your world! However, something has happened that has opened strange doors... in minds like yours... between our two realms! Only with your assistance may I find these doors... and close them!"
Together, the two travel through a strange dreamscape in search of the opening in Ricky's subconscious mind. They're briefly separated, but finally find the portal... and Ricky is shocked when the Sleepwalker's image shimmers... to be replaced by Nightmare, standing over a defeated Sleepwalker!
The second part of the story takes place in the final issue, #6, "Strange Dreams!" Nighmare uses the portal in Ricky's mind to enter the waking earth with an army of minions. This incursion alerts his arch-enemy Dr. Strange (this issue's obvious guest star) who attempts to hold off the invasion with his mystic arts. Unfortunately, that requires so much of his power, he is unable to determine where the invasion is coming from. Fortunately (for us, at least) Ricky and the Sleepwalker have been forgotten by Nightmare. Ricky leads the Sleepwalker back into the real world, to his bedroom where the Imagi-nator is kept hidden. With the power of the Imagi-nator, the Sleepwalker is able to ally with Dr. Strange and drive back Nightmare and his... well, nightmares. Afterwards, Ricky and the Sleepwalker agree to assist each other for the protection of Earth, and as the young boy dozes off in his bed, the somnambulant spook returns to the mind-scape, once more empowered with his Imagi-nator.
Unfortunately, issue six was the final issue of The Sleepwalker. Due to a proposed distribution experiment, The Sleepwalker was only sent to the Midwest periodical district, but sales figures were never reproportioned, making it appear to be the worst selling title in Marvel's post-Timely history. By the time the error was found, Wally Wood had left Marvel and Stan Lee had moved on to other projects. The 1991 series, while sharing some overt similarities, had a completely different continuity than the 1967 book, which was mostly overlooked (except by diehard Kansas City fans) and is not considered Marvel canon.
So we'll never know what happened to the sleeping version of Ricky Sheridan, left, forgotten, in the Night-Mask, thirty-six years ago.
<center><hr width=75%></center>
Douglass Barre is currently the writer of Mythstalkers from Image Comics and the creator of his own line of Chimerical Comics available at www.blackflak.com. Yes, he lives in his own little world, and no, you can't get him out.
<center><hr width=75%></center>
Before you waste a lot of time driving store to store to track down this week's featured title, please click here (http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16839) to make sure you've gotten the joke. We also sincerely warn you not to buy any Chimerical Marvel titles online, no matter how nice the seller seems.
Marvel Comics and their characters, stories and situations are (c) and (tm) Marvel Comics. Existant Marvel Comics creators and editorial staff are real people, and therefore (c) and (tm) themselves and are used here as a fictional depiction or personality parody. Non-existant Marvel Comics creators and editoral staff are entirely fictional characters and any similarities to persons living or dead are accidental and coincidental. CHIMERICAL MARVEL is a satire and/or parody (depending on the week) and not intended maliciously, but out of love. I love you, Harry S. Truman.