The Dreamer

High school senior Bea is beautiful, talented and rich. A theater lover, she’s a shoe-in to play Juliet this year and she’s finally caught the eye of hunky football star Ben. Everything seems to be going well for her.

But she’s having these dreams where she’s in 1776, in the thick of the Revolutionary War.

Lora Innes‘ The Dreamer: The Consequence of Nathan Hale (IDW, 2009) introduces us to Bea, her friends and her story. In her waking life, she’s far from being a poor little rich girl or anything as cliche as that — rather, she’s playful and popular, teasing her friends and tormenting her cousin. In her dream life, she becomes taken with the heroic Alan Warren.

Innes’ art is gorgeous. Her teenagers are drawn to look like teenagers and her faces are bright and beautiful. She’s as capable of creating action-packed battle scenes as she is drawing more intimate, quite moments between two of the characters. Innes also seems to have a lot of shoujo manga’s appreciation for clothes (look — it’s a comic about teenage girls. There are going to be — and should be — many different outfits here).

But as much as I love the art, it would just be eye candy without the story. Bea is likable and accessible. She has a little bit of a fantasy life (since most of us aren’t rich and beautiful) but she’s also capable and can think on her feet. While she makes a few asides while in the 18th century, she adapts quickly to the rules of that time period while still remaining strong. Innes has obviously done her research and the scenes in the past feel as authentic as the modern-day ones

You can read the whole thing online (the book collects issues 1-6; Innes’ site also has 7-9 with more coming) but I love having the collection. I’m completely dazzled by the comic and I can’t believe I haven’t read it before.

And I think you should stop what you’re doing and go read it right now.