I started reading The Dreamer online (can't remember now precisely how I came across it) and fell in love with the story right from the start. Stories like this are one of my absolute favourite ways to learn about history. When IDW printed the first six issues I picked all of them up as they came out, and then my sister got me the collected graphic novel for Christmas.

The story is available online, which is wonderful, but having it in print allows you to see all sorts of little details that just get lost on even a really good computer screen. ( )

The Dreamer captures the history of Revolutionary War figures---Captain Nathan Hale, Lt. Col. Thomas Knowlton, General William Howe and Private Frederick Knowlton---with richness and accuracy, and throws in a high school love story, too. We see so much written in books and in the movies about other American wars but not a lot about the American Revolution, the most important event in our history!

Bea is a student in high school with all the anxiousness, gossip and silliness that goes with the title. We see Bea get flustered when discussing her love life, especially when her cousin John teases her (right in the middle of a conversation with her girlfriends about that dreamy Cato).

Normally I'd say gag me with a spoon kiddies, this ain't for me. Except, she has these dreams.

Close your eyes and find yourself locked in a cabin; British commander Howe's cabin to be precise. For those of you not in the know, he was the guy routing the Colonials in 1776. She's rescued by a young man with a facial birthmark. They start falling for each other, then ....

She wakes! She continues mooning over this guy in her dreams to such a degree that she feels she's cheating on him when she tries to go out with Cato.

It's an interesting tale -- she closes her eyes and she lives the life of a young girl in love with a Revolutionary soldier. She opens her eyes and she returns to school with another man in her life. It's not really cheating -- is it?

She finds herself in a museum and sees a painting of the Revolution with soldiers in various states of death and dying and she notes a name -- she knows him, she must warn him!

But she's so excited, she can't sleep!

Lora Innes put together quite the comic book/web comic. She gets the reader interested in the hows and what's of the Revolution against the British, circa 1776, with all the anxiousness and social awkwardness of a 21st century high schooler. The art is nicely done, the love scenes are tasteful and tender; the war scenes are exciting and full of tension and the muskets come to bear.

The title is "The Consequences of Nathan Hale" who, as you know, was executed as a spy by General Howe and shouted the famous cry, "I only regret that I have but one life to give to my country." Looking forward to seeing how Innes handles and mixes that!

There's an art gallery by Jenny Frison that shows various gothic scenes and models. If you don't have the patience for the graphic novel, check out the web-comic online at: www.thedreamercomic.com.

Nicely done.
( )

Bea keeps dreaming about the Revolutionary War and everynight her dreams pick up exactly where she left off and some of the people and events apparently really exist. She is beginning to suspect that there maybe more to these dreams then meets the eye.

This was a fun read. I can't wait to find out what is going to happen to Bea next in her dreams and whether they are true or not. The colors are vibrant and fun and in a truly girly moment I love the period clothin that the artist puts Bea in. It's interesting to see the kind of toll her dream life is taking on her real life, but honestly her real life is just not as interesting as her dream life and I feel like her friends and family just don't draw you in the way the characters from her dream world do. ( )

Bea keeps dreaming about the Revolutionary War and everynight her dreams pick up exactly where she left off and some of the people and events apparently really exist. She is beginning to suspect that there maybe more to these dreams then meets the eye.

This was a fun read. I can't wait to find out what is going to happen to Bea next in her dreams and whether they are true or not. The colors are vibrant and fun and in a truly girly moment I love the period clothin that the artist puts Bea in. It's interesting to see the kind of toll her dream life is taking on her real life, but honestly her real life is just not as interesting as her dream life and I feel like her friends and family just don't draw you in the way the characters from her dream world do. ( )

Bea keeps dreaming about the Revolutionary War and everynight her dreams pick up exactly where she left off and some of the people and events apparently really exist. She is beginning to suspect that there maybe more to these dreams then meets the eye.

This was a fun read. I can't wait to find out what is going to happen to Bea next in her dreams and whether they are true or not. The colors are vibrant and fun and in a truly girly moment I love the period clothin that the artist puts Bea in. It's interesting to see the kind of toll her dream life is taking on her real life, but honestly her real life is just not as interesting as her dream life and I feel like her friends and family just don't draw you in the way the characters from her dream world do. ( )