Written by Jonathan Hedrick
Art by Luigi Barricelli
Colors by Rubin Curto
Letters by DC Hopkins
Editor Dimitrios Zaharakis
Published by Blackbox Comics

“When a man is trapped in a frightening carnival, Dream Master must rescue the mortal’s sleeping spirit before demonic jesters can capture him. But Dream Master is shaken by a vision of his own past that may lead him to a future encounter with the mysterious Queen of The Night.”

If you weren’t already in love with Luigi Barricelli art after issue 1, you sure as hell will be now. This story is such a great showcase of the intricate background details and character details that he can create and shows why he is an artist to watch in 2023 and beyond. Combine his lines with Ruben Curto’s brilliant colors and you’re practically walking through the insane detailed and hellish dreamscape in this issue as clowns take over a man’s dreams in this issue. Ruben shows his range even more so in this issue as he showcases some bright aspects of the clown dreams while keeping the dream realm in an overall dark state.

Jonathan again shows how he can craft another incredible issue, slowly adding background information to our protagonist while explaining the premise of the world without talking right at the reader. He uses victims of the dream realm as a narrative tool to further the overarching plot and the tension between our roguish paladin and the Queen of the Night. The pacing is perfect for a 5 issue series, which usually hits a crescendo in the 3rd or 4th issue, and this story is on pace to head towards a big confrontation very soon as hinted at by scenes with the Queen of the Night.

DC Hopkins again kills in on the letters with great balloon placement, sound effect placement and style choices, and continuing the different style balloons for our main character. I love how much detail is put into the lettering on this comic.

I honestly think I liked this one even more than the first issue and I can see the creative team having so much fun with this. Luigi’s design of our monsters of the issue is phenomenal and Jonathan’s delve into Dream Master’s supposed past really furthers this story in a way that makes this follow-up issue fun and even more interesting. Much more fun than our dream victim has at a clown-infested funhouse.

I can’t wait to read this again and find new things in the incredible backgrounds. This is a must-read comic!

Dream Master #2 releases 1/11/2023 at your local comic show or online at https://blackboxcomics.net/

Rating: 9.5/10

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