DREAMSCREEN
July 2002 £1
24 pages A5 B&W
Ria's been having strange dreams and she can't remember things. Could it be the dreamscreen?
July 2002 £1
24 pages A5 B&W
A little while back, I reviewed Frontiers 1 for Savant and was very impressed. In all fairness, it's the sort of material I'd enjoy anyway, but Tony McGee's epic-scale, apocalyptic piece of science fiction is a remarkably well put together, interesting story. #2 only serves to confirm that. McGee's taken the brave step here of not having a definite central character for the series, and it's working. Here, the focus is on Dreamscreen technology, McGee's take on virtual reality and it's effects on the user. The writing is as sharp as ever here and McGee seems to revel in the small scale of the issue. It all takes place in one apartment, shared by Ria, a young woman and her mother. Both are obsessive Dreamscreen users and as the issue progresses we see how this affects their relationship and ultimately their mental health. Intelligent, well drawn and very disturbing, Frontiers 2 is, if anything, better than the first issue. Science fiction comics don't come much better than this.
As Rolf Harris would say, one of my favourites. The virtual reality genre's been done to death, but I liked the idea of a normal family of addicts. As a reader pointed out, on one level it's an attack on dumbed down TV and media culture. Another letter writer saw it as a serious piece on amnesia. To me personally it's about getting stuck in a rut, where everyday seems the same. That's why I always leave the reader to draw their own conclusions, as it really is all about what you get out of it on a personal level. I've used dreams in an awful lot of my stories, so changing the VR to a dream machine is what made this issue work so well for me. It's (hopefully) my final word on dream wisdom. Ria quickly became one of my favourite characters. The cover is Ria looking in the mirror. Sort of.
