Sleepless 2

By Sarah Vaughn, Leila del Duca, Alissa Sallah
collects Sleepless #7-11
(volume 1 | 2 – complete)

Sleepless is one of the few books I bought without reading from the library first, and then proceeded to start it while in line to check out at my comic shop. (if you’re interested, the post about how I read comics is here.) Few books have enchanted me like Sleepless and I’m a little heartbroken that this is the final arc.

TFW you finish Sleepless and don’t want to read anything else ever again except MORE SLEEPLESS.

On one hand, I’d much prefer a fantastic, shorter story than one that’s gone on so long it’s lost interest in itself (see The Walking Dead.) But there is a middle ground there – such as Paper Girls, or a necessarily long story like WicDiv. And while I appreciate that Sleepless didn’t dwell too long on its love triangles, a wedding, and the big whodunit reveal (which was kind of meh for me), I still wanted more, and I finished this page turner in an hour.

This opening page is a gorgeous parallel of the first issue with Cyrenic.

Poppy remains the most three dimensional character in Sleepless, and she is just fantastic. We see even more of her cunning in this volume: she’s steps ahead in the political game, she completely OWNS a minor villain that would have season one Sansa in tears, and she definitely figured out the surprise villain before you did. However, some other characters with great potential, especially Rellen, are underused (and her relationship with Poppy was not highlighted enough at all). We see more of Cyrenic – whose freedom from the Sleepless puts him in political jeopardy, but back in Poppy’s life as an equal – but I felt we were missing more from him too.

In my first volume review I hoped we would get out of Harbeny in this volume, and we remained stuck until the very end – the walls were literally closing in on Poppy and Cyrenic. It was necessary for the story Vaughn, del Duca and Sallah wanted to tell, but it was a shame to never explore Poppy’s maternal home Mribesh, and a fantasy element crucial to Poppy and Cyrenic’s escape appears deus-ex-machina style and is never explained.

spoilers. Similarly, what felt like major foreshadowing in the opening arc – magic that allows you to heal, but it takes time off the end of your life – mostly retreats to the background (aside from time-related sayings). It seemed clear from the start that Poppy or Cyrenic would have to make this kind of sacrifice, yet only a minor character needs it in the end. Like character development, concluding the story at eleven issues also meant less world building, which was a shame. I would have loved a third arc, even if some of the issues were filler, or focused on minor characters (such as the female soldiers, Rellen, or Cyrenic’s past), or finally meeting Poppy’s mother, who remains physically absent in the story.

Del Duca and Sallah’s art is absolutely glorious here, and it almost makes up for the story’s shortcomings. Del Duca has pinned her characters’ expressions down to a science, and even though we still don’t get a lot of personality from Cyrenic in the writing, we see a lot more of his personality visually, now that he’s caught up on a few years’ worth of sleep:

Now this is a romance book, and after that “teaser” panel in the last arc, del Duca and Sallah bring a fantastic romantic chemistry to Poppy and Cyrenic – without any nudity so young readers can enjoy this title too. (Though sexuality was hinted at in the first volume, and I think it would have been truer to the characters, but still.) And just like the last volume, the style and colors are unique and vibrant, with lots of yellows and reds, like poppies, and lovely textured backgrounds when focusing on a character. The fashion design, especially Poppy’s outfits, remain beautiful as ever and are just screaming for cosplay. I just wish the story was less indoors – the walls of Harbeny are still colorful and bright, but del Duca and Sallah’s final outdoor panels are simply stunning.

This isn’t a final panel. I’m not going to spoil it for you!

One of the best aspects of Image Comics is that creators have the complete freedom to tell their stories, in eleven issues or over a hundred. While I’m sad to say goodbye to Sleepless – whose world has so much potential – I truly hope it’s not goodbye for good. And if it is….I hope we at least see this creative team reunite for more fantastic stories. Thank you for Sleepless.