3 out of 5

Dream Gang is not a work of genius.  Like most things McCarthy, it is a completely normal story, on which we narrationally skim atop, and yet is entirely unique at the same time.  Like other similar surrealist embracers – Jim Woodring comes to mind- McCarthy concocts stories based around his own musings, and since those often are on dreams (fueled by 60s psychedelia), his tales follow that type of loose logic, stepping from moment to moment across great divides of logic into new landscapes loaded with new terminology and friends and foes.  That he avoids loading that stories with any excess “point” is actually what keeps then readable and entertaining, not pushing for any overt symbolism or randomness, just letting the details flow as they will; piloted by the dream (or story, when in comic form) itself, as – excusing subconscious motivations – our dreams often are.  This guy gets it: Dream Gang is really about the experience, and not so much the loose plot points of dream avatars, or bad guy Zeirio’s schemes to be a dream-made-real, or some buried memory of our lead character / dreamer, Patrick – or even the eponymous gang that sort of unites to halt Zeirio.  As DG pseudo-leader Chumhartley tells Patrick (made-over as his dream avatar): This all goes away when he wakes up.  And if there is any underlying point to that plot-undermining concept, it’s to be found in the story’s conclusion: That the dream wakes into the dream of life, which wakes into the dream of death.

The dream is thus forever.  And its humorous to see most reviews (and the trade cover) only referencing Mad Max for McCarthy’s credit, since he’s been pursing representations of this dream for decades.  Dream Gang, on the one hand, is the most distilled version of these thoughts.  It was smart to serialize it in DHP, since the story moves in, as mentioned, dreamy fits.  When collected together, its open-ended nature is more apparent. Though its also easy to read in a sitting for that same reason, the lack of any stakes almost reduces DG into an art book, and as much as I love McCarthy’s hypercolor, nightmare design sense, he kept it pretty simple here, and the open backgrounds don’t help to distinguish a page from a page.  Overall, Brendan’s work might be stronger when latched on to more of a vibe – like Peter Milligan’s wit – or even a traditional character, like his excellent Spider-Man tale.  Nonetheless, as a representation of dream feelings, DG is spot on.

The 15 dollar trade nets you quite a bit of extra sketches and prep work from McCarthy, though it would’ve been nice if this had been assembled maybe chronologically.

DG might not change your world, but Brendan is still the rare type in today’s comic world, creating non-superhero stuff that’s not out to change your world.  So if you, like Patrick, want a temporary escape from your grey days, Dream Gang is a good way of doing so.