It’s embarrassing to admit this, but I’ve a small collection of webcomics I regularly read that I’ve never gotten around to reviewing. Part of this lies with the inspirational nature of my review-writing; often I joke that if the Muse isn’t interested, the review doesn’t get written. Sadly, the contemporary fantasy comic dream*scar is one such victim of my fussy Muse; this is a decided shame seeing that I’ve been enjoying the comic for well over a year now. A combination of an interesting storyline, a sympathetic heroine, and a fascinating setting has kept me regularly reading it. Getting my Muse to help with the review, on the other hand, has been a task that has seen multiple false starts.

Cartoonist Heather Meade quickly captured my interest with a surreal and disturbing start, with half a dozen teenagers lying bloodied on the ground before a young green-eyed girl with blood splattered on her face. From there, things only become yet more surreal, with the girl’s reflection stepping out of the mirror to confront her, before finally Vix starts awake, the bloody scene revealed to be a dream. It was a most superb start to the comic and the comic shifts to a more mundane setting, with Vix starting a new year of school, and we’re treated to a brief moment of normalcy before her world starts collapsing around her.

Along the way, Meade does an excellent job of introducing background elements to her world without overwhelming readers with information dumps, outside of a three-page summary concerning “unhumans” and how they’re treated by humanity as a whole. (To sum up quickly? Segregated and discriminated against.) Most of the background elements are provided by Vix’s own internal monologues as she comes to cope with the revelations of her own heritage and trying to find out who and what she is after Vix learns that the life she knew had been a lie.

The artwork tends to be fairly clean, with a good grasp of effective shading of characters and backgrounds, though there is a definite manga influence to Meade’s artwork. This is especially true with the frequent chibi-style artistic elements which often are used to depict moments of frustration and intense emotion with Vix. To be honest, I’m not fond of these elements; Meade has shown considerable talent with her art, and doesn’t need to rely on such crutches as over-exaggerated art found in the chibi-style. Given that DS has had over 160 updates to date, this is unlikely to change, and I’m sure there are plenty of readers who have no problem with this artistic element.

Most importantly to me, the comic has a firm story and has maintained a good grasp on continuity. This is partly because Meade had initially written much of the story as a novel before she adapted it to a graphic novel format. The pacing is fairly slow in places, but it helps in building the atmosphere and mood. The cast of characters outside of Vix have proven… interesting, though I must admit I liked her human friends better than most of the unhumans; no doubt with further exposure I’ll warm up to them as well. On the whole, dream*scar is definitely worth reading, and a webcomic I highly recommend.