Published in 2004, Brown Paper Bag Comics Presents...The Dreamer is a stand alone comic that I ended up submitting to the Xeric Foundation for a chance at a publishing grant. While I did not receive the grant, everyone I've heard from who has won has said they didn't win it on their first submission. So I see it as an opportunity to get my name out there, and give me a chance to get a grant when I really need it...

There's an interesting story surrounding how The Dreamer came to exist in it's current format. I was rushing to get the book done for a show in Toronto, and I was running a little late, so I was unable to typeset the book. So instead of not bringing it to the show, I printed up a few "silent" copies and brought them along. After speaking with a number of people, I began to realize that the story read very well even without the text. My buddy Reg (check out his line of books in my links section...) suggested that I should publish it silent, as is. But I was really fond of the script I'd written and didn't want it to go to waste. What I realized was that while the story could be read silently and was rewarding to the reader, the script I'd written provided information and context not available in the images alone. The solution I came up with was to present both versions of the story back to back. The silent version is first, allowing the reader to find their own subjective story within it, and the scripted version second, not so much to say "this is what the story really is", but to enrich their own interpretation with information they could not have had access to in the first part, and to reveal my take on that story...

Some pages from The Dreamer