Waking Life - Book One: Pleasant Places - Comic Review
Feels like something I dreamed… or maybe once lived.
Time for a short story.
I’ve been reading comics for basically the better part of 3 decades. I would be considered some kind of a two-horned unicorn if I never thought of writing my own one day. I have thought of countless scenarios, and it just so happens that one of them was Waking Life.
Okay, maybe not exactly the same, but I draw inspiration from actual experiences. When I was a kid, I used to dream occasionally of the same place, meeting the same people, and it felt like a continuation.
So reading Waking Life was really a unique experience because it felt like I was reading something I had written.
Story
But you see, the story of Waking Life is all too familiar—and that works in such a great way. I think that many of us, especially the ones reading comics, playing P&P games or RPGs, have those repeating dreams. I can’t recall what was happening, but I dreamed multiple times that I was living inside World of Warcraft.
The story, though, of Waking Life holds a secret origin.
I don’t know Ben Humeniuk personally, but I wouldn’t think he is a day older than 100 (if Ben ever reads this article, this is intended as a joke—I can’t handle legal fees), so he couldn’t be alive during October 15, 1905, and the launch of Little Nemo.
Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay launched for the first time on Oct 15, 1905, and it was a hit. And even though I’ve never read a single strip of it (other than a few hours ago), I think that Ben Humeniuk did it justice with Waking Life.
The story revolves around Robbie Boone, a boy that travels into his dreams to spend time with the Princess of Dreams and their adventures. But also it’s about coming of age, losing your imagination, and some friends in the process.
Characters from Waking Life are also familiar with Little Nemo, but really… if you build a dream world and you don’t have Morpheus as a dream god/king/deity, then what are you even doing?
Art
I am not going to say that I don’t know a thing about art anymore, because you know what? I’ve been practicing every day for a whole week now. I can now almost do a circle. Almost.
The reason why I wanted to learn to draw was because I wanted to learn how to do sketches. I don’t want to do perfect sketches—just a lot of lines that, if someone stares at for a while, they might figure out what I wanted to draw.
Waking Life feels like sketch art to me. Where some comics are more digital, clean, and not personal, this one is the exact opposite. It feels like someone sketched it, made it warm and fuzzy, and printed it.
I find it inviting. I even enjoyed the pocket-sized height (is this called pocket-sized?), but it packs a weight.
I also found the straight panels to be easy to read. I am not sure what Ben was going for here, but in my mind, it reads very much like a strip—which the original comic was back in 1905.
Conclusion
Reading Waking Life felt less like discovering something new and more like reconnecting with something I’d always known. It captures that strange, fleeting magic of recurring dreams and childhood wonder, while also speaking to the bittersweet process of growing up and letting go.
It’s honest, nostalgic, and deeply personal—both in its story and its art. And for anyone who’s ever dreamed of far-off worlds or quietly wished they hadn’t stopped imagining them, Waking Life will feel like home.
