Customer Reviews

The Dreaming, Vol. 1

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's sort of nice to see manga artwork being embraced from places other than Japan -- in this case, Australian Queenie Chan, who loves comics, manga, and apparently creating them.

Her printed debut "The Dreaming" is a pretty solid one, although this volume is mostly buildup. Fortunately Chan has a knack for gothic beauty and eeriness, and she also has an excellent drawing style. It takes awhile for the plot to actually get moving, but it;s a suitably spooky ride.

Twins Jeanie and Amber are brought to their new school, a prestigious all-girls academy. But the moment they get there, weird things happen -- creepy pictures, nasty teachers, and their aunt tells them to never reveal that they are twins. Even worse, both girls start having bizarre dreams about Victorian girls and bleeding trees.

But things become even worse when their friend Millie vanishes from the school -- just like other girls at the school, who never came back. No one who goes out into the bushlands comes back. Now the girls venture out into the dark woods to find Millie -- but what they find is even worse than a disappearance.

Though done in the style of Japanese manga, Chan's story is actually very Australian, with that whole "lost in the bushlands" storyline. And the rest of it is archetypical ghost-story setup, coming to a haunted school and delving into all the ominous stuff. Complete with seance and creepy dreams. Nice start!

The plot is somewhat lacking, since the first volume of this series is basically building an eerie atmosphere, and planting clues to whatever the ghost story is. The clues are tantalizing, and the final act kicks the plot into gear, and will have readers slavering to find out what will happen. It's also when Chan's storytelling ability tops itself.

Chan has a great drawing style, with lots of detail and gothic flair -- isolated schools, draperies, crystal chandeliers and Victorian paintings. The one flaw is that her characters' faces are sometimes too stiff, especially when they're happy. Fortunately this improves over time, and by the middle Jeanie and Amber have loosened up facially.

And another good point is that Chan has maintained the manga stylings. No spouting tears or anything, but she has the same sort of style, as well as little details like the ghosts' wide mouths and the dark panels with white lettering. She's obviously observed other manga artwork and caught on to all the little stylistic details.

Amber and Jeanie initially seem like the typical twins-who-act-completely-different, but soon start growing as characters. Surprisingly it's carefree, chipper Jeanie who takes center stage, while her moodier sister steps back. The other girls and teachers don't have much personality yet, but the girl with the headband definitely seems to be growing one by the finale.

Australian manga get a Victorian gothic twist in "The Dreaming," Queenie Chan's first printed manga. It starts off a bit awkwardly, but has plenty of promise for Volume Two.

The Dreaming is a spooky horror manga about a Victorian-style private school in a remote area of Australia. Twin teenage girls who just arrived at the school soon find there is something sinister about not only the school, but the surrounding area. What is the strange history of the school and why does one of the twins visit it in her dreams?

Author Queenie Chan based the story on a famous Australian book/movie called Picnic at Hanging Rock. Hanging Rock is about a girls' school in Victorian times and the strange disappearance of three students. The movie is so well-done that most who saw it believed the fictional story to be historically true. Indeed, The Dreaming is very much like the movie, and was one of the reasons I was attracted to the book. The manga art is good, but not quite as good as the story. Chan draws backgrounds more convincingly than characters.

Can't wait for volume two, coming in November 2006!

The Dreaming is definitely one of the best mangas I've ever read. I was absorbed from beginning to end, completely immersed in the spooky atmosphere of each page. It's a very imaginative work, with a beautiful Victorian/ gothic setting in Australia. The artwork is clean and flowing, and the storyline has a tight, fast-paced, and well-developed plot (which is a pretty rare find!). It could easily be made into a plot for a movie. It was full of rising suspense as well, and the images are very haunting. (I found the picture of the two Victorian ghost ladies standing in the dorm room at the end of chapter two to be particularly creepy while reading it late at night in my own dorm room!) I highly recommend this manga not just to manga lovers, but anyone who enjoys a good suspense or ghost story!

This title has been something I've been rather intrigued to buy for quite some time now. Queenie-chan has been on the web-manga scene for quite some time now, and I was interested in seeing her debut as a professional comic artist. I would have to say that the outcome has been splendid.

The Dreaming is a story set deep in the bush of Australia, at a very old, Victorian feeling boarding school for girls. Jeannie and Amber are new students at this school and are in store for quite the creepy ride. Apparently, the vice principal has a prejudice against identical twins. The two girls, being such, have been snuck into the school by their aunt. Soon after starting classes, Amber and Jeannie begin to have the same odd dreams. From there, the gothic mystery unravels and captures your interest just as the volume finishes, leaving you yearning for more.

Overall, the art is VERY solid. Queenie Chan has an identifiable, consistent style. At times, however, the paneling can be a bit too complex, leaving the reader to wonder which frame to move on to next. However, in each panel, Queenie has finely crafted some of the best rendered images that OELManga have to offer. Each page oozes of the foreboding feeling of the school. The backgrounds are well drawn, and the characters fit right into place.

My only true qualm about the book is the lettering -- the bubbles are all digitally made, and seem somewhat out of place when you see how organic Queenie's characters look. At that, they're also a bit too big, and the font that is used in them is just the same. Queenie has publicly admitted that using the font has been a mistake, so I can't condemn her for it.

Either way, The Dreaming is a well thought out and rather successful attempt at horror manga. The last chapter leaves you yearning for more, on the edge of your seat in suspense, as any good horror manga should. I look forward to the next volume of The Dreaming, and would recommend it to anyone who's interested in the OEL phenomenon. An open mind is required. You can't simply compare these comics to their Japanese counterparts, but when looked at for what they are -- comics -- they're splendid, and The Dreaming is no exception.

I read a segment of this in a magazine a while back, and while it intrigued me a bit I wasn't really all that impressed. But after seeing it and barnes and noble and buying it on a whim, I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. I'm a sucker for a creepy story, and this has all the nesicary ingredients. The setting, plot, and pacing are excellent. I got goosebumps as I read it, and the fact that it's set out in the bush is perfect, because it's a place that fascinates me. And I think it would fascinate anyone who read this. Add into this well developed characters and intriguing mystery, and you've got an exceptional first book.

But I've failed to mention the most excellent piece to this story, and that would have to be the artwork. Especially the clothing for the dream sequences, it's magnificently elaborate. And the backgrounds are pure eyecandy, all in all it's a well thought out and well worth a read manga.

In The Dreaming,by Queenie Chan you follow an australian school girl on a fantastical, scientific, and historical adventure. While there is a unexplainable and mystifying aspect, the center ideas of her dreams show evidence of occuring events and foreshadowing that relates to our own dreaming. This also shows fascinating legends and victorian reference. All genres that will apeal to the tasteful reader.

I finished reading volume one of The Dreaming. I was directed to her because of her art work in the Odd Thomas manga <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Odd-We-Trust-Queenie-Chan/dp/0345499662/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236442192&sr=8-2" target="_blank">In Odd We Trust</a>. When I looked for her other contributions, I saw she had written this 3 book series called The Dreaming. The art work was beautiful, with a dark undertone that at times was consuming, so needless to say I wanted to read it. There is no page that isn't filled with her detailed art work, beautifying effects and descriptive imagery of the characters, environment and layout of where the story is taking place. Now the story itself is promising, the author does a good job at trying to build suspense and not falling into the normal manga dialect. I am looking forward to reading volume 2 and see how the story moves from introduction suspense to actual horror action and then to the end of the story, I want to know what is causing the disappearances.


The Dreaming Vol. 1

Written & Drawn by: Queenie Chan
Publisher: Tokyopop
Genre: Drama / Horror
Suggested Age: 13 + (Teen)

The Dreaming is based on an Australian horror. It is said that at night, girls who go into the bush alone mysteriously disappear. Could this actually be true? Why hasn't the missing girls returned? Does this mean it's true? Amber and her twin sister must find out the secrets before any more girls disappear. The principle is pretty creepy too. Could she be behind this? Or is this really true? What or who is killing these girls? And why? Amber is filled with questions that nobody knows the answer too. If the girls know about this, they should think and not go into the bush at night! There is only one way to find out. We must go into the bush at night and see what is really happening. Let's just hope that we come out. Alive.

This is a really good thriller. It has me flipping pages and craving more when it was over. it's the story of two twin girls who go to a school in the middle of nowhere. The school seems to hold a dark ledgend about twins, so all twins are banned from the school. The two girls manage to get into the private school and have to hide the fact they are twins.

They keep haveing the same dream over and over and creepy things start to happen around them. The girls try to ignore it, but when their friend shows up missing, they don't know what to do.

This i recomment to anyone. It is amazing, and must read thriller. It is a little weird but it's really good.

Queenie Chan is an excellent cartoonist, with positive reviews from Newtype Magazine, AnimeNewsNetwork, Booklist, Anime Fringe, IGN, and many other respectable Online and Print magazines and journals.

A suspensful tale set at a girl's boarding school, The Dreaming takes you to a land explored rarely in fiction, let alone manga/comic books, Australia. The Outback serves as an ever present metaphor of what the twins new life is like- strange, isolated, an unbalanced place where sinister things are likely to occur. The supposed disappearances of a handful of students over the years certainly doesn't help things, but Jeannie and Amber Malkin try to adapt to things as best as they can.

Full of gorgeous artwork, particularly the stunningly complex backgrounds you rarely see in the more abstract realm of Shoujo Manga, it mixed many influences to create a fantastic read you would never get sticking to just Japanese manga. As someone with a Bachelor's degree in literature and art history, I can assure you everything presented is top notch. What's even more promising is that this complex work is Queenie's first full graphic novel afte a long stint of short story work, and we can only expect better things as time goes on.


BTW- look for the sumptuous paper dolls included with the book, in full water colour at that! A great addition to the book