I've been bursting to talk about this comic but haven't found a way to do so yet. As with all good mysteries, there's a lot of misdirection going on that is based on how the characters work. The religious aspect of this mystery is a red herring (hehe). Though the small, rural town is happy to believe that the source of all this evil is the Devil, there isn't really proof that it is caused by the Devil and, in fact, a more scientific, sci-fi answer seems to be the way to go.
To be honest, for much of the run so far, I thought Jon's Sleeper Half was actually just a wild animal, though a werewolf-like situation. It eats when it's hungry, if it's trapped it tries to escape, if it's cornered it fights back. There is some evidence, however, to suggest that it's more sinister in nature; namely the growing marks on Jon and a few malicious acts the Sleeper has taken. It might be more like a Bruce Banner / Hulk sort of situation.
As for the significance of color, I am partially convinced that it's a sort of red herring. Namely, I think that the red is not a color that is symbolically significant to the story. Jon mentions being able to see the paint as red when others see it as black. Ergo, I think the red is something chemically significant; the materials of whatever is red is something relevant to Jon's Sleeper, like a supernatural weakness. Blue is also prominent in a few places, and I feel it also has the same sort of thing going on.
Mind you, the biggest mystery is not What or Who, but Why Jon? Why does this (let's be honest here) loser get saddled with this curse? Why, out of all these people, is it Jon? Why, and How?
I'm looking forward to the final issues, and to any answers we might get. I feel fairly confident that we will never see the Sleeper, just the aftermath, but even without that it's a very satisfying story.
Thank you for reading and taking the time to add your thoughts. You are hopefully right and that this isn't strictly a religious allegory, but as I included because it's right there in the first issue: Hipp is introduced with the word "Enemy" above him, then shown in the alley with the word "enemy" directly behind his head. Also, here's my redacted comment. In the first issue Hipp is drawn in the coffee shop silhouetted with a mischievous face and a forelock that looks very horn-like. However...it seems that Hipp is just run-of-the-mill scum as evidenced by his treatment of Tabby. Also, in that panel in the alley, I think the whole thing is laid out for us: the symbol the man is painting on the ground and that he has on his coat is painted on the wall behind Tabby. One end points directly at Jon. Whether this is about the next issue or the series finale, time will tell. Here screenwriter Craig Mazin's voice comes into my head: A plot twist should feel both surprising and inevitable. I think Cannon is skilled enough to pull this off.
All of your perspective is convincing to me, except the red being a red herring. It's too much
I think I'll add some comments here after reading issue 7 this week, which will draw me to the comic shop more than anything else in recent memory!
I just noticed that my comment got cropped, I must have screwed up and accidentally deleted a line and now that it's two days later it will be hard to rebuild. I think this is what I intended: "The red is too much of a consistent thing, especially contrasted with the blue that he introduced."
The blue is clearly indicative of a counterbalance to the red. I tried to read carefully, and found that I may have overplayed one part: Hipp's role in the thing. I think he will be back in 8, but if not, his "enemy" designation is due to his treatment of Tabby.
The existential dread is certainly ramped up. More and more Jon is terrified by who he is, even if he can't remember who he is. And Tabby is clearly terrified as well, and she knows better than Jon.
Some more interesting developments as we reach the end with #8 being 32 pages (good!): The inside front cover has removed the entire city on the map, since it seems that Jon has replicated the symbol on his body. We still don't know what happened when Hipp hits him with the shovel, but it may have triggered his biggest Sleep episode yet, killing Hipp (confirmed in the "previously in" inside the front cover here) in the process. Which brings us to a scary cliffhanger, since Tabby's hopeful cure might put him to sleep, awakening the mystery monster, which Cannon calls a "werewolf/Jekyll and Hyde/Incredible Hulk" concept.
This does still bring us back to "Why Jon" as asked above.
Another thing this issue conveys is that you've asked the right question: "Why Jon?"
I've read Issue #7 as well, and I'm refining my thoughts.
Something I only now noticed is that whenever Jon wakes up, he isn't wearing his glasses, but he IS wearing other articles of clothing. Boxers, Straight Jacket, a, uh, well, noose.... The glasses are often nearby, which is interesting. It's like the Sleeper is shaking the Glasses off towards the end of the sleep cycle. It also tells us that Jon isn't really physically changing when he sleeps, which is very interesting.
The biggest source of Red was when Jon locked himself away in the old mineshaft. That contained the Sleeper for the entire night, though it really did a number on the walls. It's scattered across town, primarily in the paint, but on random volleyballs and sports equipment, a whole optometrist's office, that sort of thing.
We now know that the Glasses give off some kind of radiation signature that can be picked up on a sensing device. It doesn't appear to spread or affect other items, so I'm going with the Red being some sort of energy or chemical on these objects.
The Blue is pretty symbolic, as far as I can figure. it's not a material or energy, like the Red, it's just in association with the Laboratory.
But I think the Sleeper doesn't like the Red. This trouble started when the mineshaft collapsed, and the old mineshaft was VERY red. The Sleeper tries to get rid of any Red objects on it, though that is a bit suspect. This is going to be more relevant to the origin, I think. It's mentioned that something like this has happened before in this issue, though a more minor incident.
We've also gotten our first description of the Sleeper, and it's... blurry. Which I think plays nicely with how Jon's clothing isn't destroyed.
What I'm going with now is that the Sleeper is some kind of energy being or psychic presence that has hitched a ride in Jon's mind and uses it whenever Jon can't. It has nasty psychic powers or energy projection that allows it to carve up things as if it was a large animal. It's effectively a demonic possession, though I wouldn't call it a demon in the Christian sense. I didn't even track the symbol being drawn out until you mentioned it, but it might be part of how the Sleeper works. Namely, it wants to draw this symbol.
Oooh, now that's nasty, that's a nasty thought. I think, given that the Sleeper has no physical body and dislikes the Red, it's looking to fully possess Jon's body. It can't do that all the time, it can't overcome a conscious human mind. In order to do so, it needs to make sure its mark is fully on Jon, which has been corresponding to paths it has taken through town. Once it does, it won't fear the Red any more and can leave town for elsewhere.
I think the only solution present is for Jon to die and for the Sleeper, when it leaves his body, to be trapped in a location completely surrounded by the Red. I think it's happened once before, with that missing girl. She was the Sleeper's host, and her father managed to figure things out enough to stop the Sleeper, trapping it in the Mineshaft. When the Mineshaft collapsed, the Sleeper was free to try and take over a body. I think it chose Jon only because Jon was in the right place at the right time for the best ability to draw its symbols. The Pill isn't going to work; it's loaded with whatever chemical is associated with the Red, but like the Hulk, the Sleeper is just going to spit that bullet out again.
So this is more like Demonic Possession, but the Lab has been approaching it scientifically to figure what the Sleeper is and presumably how to stop it or use it for some sort of gain. They don't want to get attached because chances are good they'll need to kill Jon. That's just how this is. I thought it was more like the Incredible Hulk, but with no physical transformation present, this is more reminiscent of spiritual matters.
Yeah, I thought it was interesting that when Jon was turning (due to avoiding whatever they were putting in the liquid) his vision became blurry, like the glasses stopped working because his eyes got better when he became the Sleeper.
I'm going to give the series a re-read and see if revisiting knocks anything loose, but I'm so excited to see how the story wraps up.
Your take on psychological dread over gore is so astute. It makes me wonder, what if this focus becomes the new standart for genre horror? The implications for narrative depth are significant. Areciate your clear insights on creator vision.
The horror of dread is not remotely new, even in comics. Humans have been doing dreadful things to each other for as long as we've had a semblance of free will. Garth Ennis does dread very well, but tends to add at least an image or two of gore per book. I'd argue that Harvey Kurtzman's war books were the first great books full of dread absent anything supernatural, but even those come from Conrad and earlier literary practitioners.
NOTE FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO AVOID SPOILERS. MY COMMENTS HERE WILL DEFINITELY CONTAIN SPOILERS AS I READ AND CONSIDER ISSUE 7 (out 12/24) AND 8!
I've been bursting to talk about this comic but haven't found a way to do so yet. As with all good mysteries, there's a lot of misdirection going on that is based on how the characters work. The religious aspect of this mystery is a red herring (hehe). Though the small, rural town is happy to believe that the source of all this evil is the Devil, there isn't really proof that it is caused by the Devil and, in fact, a more scientific, sci-fi answer seems to be the way to go.
To be honest, for much of the run so far, I thought Jon's Sleeper Half was actually just a wild animal, though a werewolf-like situation. It eats when it's hungry, if it's trapped it tries to escape, if it's cornered it fights back. There is some evidence, however, to suggest that it's more sinister in nature; namely the growing marks on Jon and a few malicious acts the Sleeper has taken. It might be more like a Bruce Banner / Hulk sort of situation.
As for the significance of color, I am partially convinced that it's a sort of red herring. Namely, I think that the red is not a color that is symbolically significant to the story. Jon mentions being able to see the paint as red when others see it as black. Ergo, I think the red is something chemically significant; the materials of whatever is red is something relevant to Jon's Sleeper, like a supernatural weakness. Blue is also prominent in a few places, and I feel it also has the same sort of thing going on.
Mind you, the biggest mystery is not What or Who, but Why Jon? Why does this (let's be honest here) loser get saddled with this curse? Why, out of all these people, is it Jon? Why, and How?
I'm looking forward to the final issues, and to any answers we might get. I feel fairly confident that we will never see the Sleeper, just the aftermath, but even without that it's a very satisfying story.
[SPOILERS WITHIN]
Thank you for reading and taking the time to add your thoughts. You are hopefully right and that this isn't strictly a religious allegory, but as I included because it's right there in the first issue: Hipp is introduced with the word "Enemy" above him, then shown in the alley with the word "enemy" directly behind his head. Also, here's my redacted comment. In the first issue Hipp is drawn in the coffee shop silhouetted with a mischievous face and a forelock that looks very horn-like. However...it seems that Hipp is just run-of-the-mill scum as evidenced by his treatment of Tabby. Also, in that panel in the alley, I think the whole thing is laid out for us: the symbol the man is painting on the ground and that he has on his coat is painted on the wall behind Tabby. One end points directly at Jon. Whether this is about the next issue or the series finale, time will tell. Here screenwriter Craig Mazin's voice comes into my head: A plot twist should feel both surprising and inevitable. I think Cannon is skilled enough to pull this off.
All of your perspective is convincing to me, except the red being a red herring. It's too much
I think I'll add some comments here after reading issue 7 this week, which will draw me to the comic shop more than anything else in recent memory!
I just noticed that my comment got cropped, I must have screwed up and accidentally deleted a line and now that it's two days later it will be hard to rebuild. I think this is what I intended: "The red is too much of a consistent thing, especially contrasted with the blue that he introduced."
Ok, 7 is out!!!
The blue is clearly indicative of a counterbalance to the red. I tried to read carefully, and found that I may have overplayed one part: Hipp's role in the thing. I think he will be back in 8, but if not, his "enemy" designation is due to his treatment of Tabby.
The existential dread is certainly ramped up. More and more Jon is terrified by who he is, even if he can't remember who he is. And Tabby is clearly terrified as well, and she knows better than Jon.
Some more interesting developments as we reach the end with #8 being 32 pages (good!): The inside front cover has removed the entire city on the map, since it seems that Jon has replicated the symbol on his body. We still don't know what happened when Hipp hits him with the shovel, but it may have triggered his biggest Sleep episode yet, killing Hipp (confirmed in the "previously in" inside the front cover here) in the process. Which brings us to a scary cliffhanger, since Tabby's hopeful cure might put him to sleep, awakening the mystery monster, which Cannon calls a "werewolf/Jekyll and Hyde/Incredible Hulk" concept.
This does still bring us back to "Why Jon" as asked above.
Another thing this issue conveys is that you've asked the right question: "Why Jon?"
I've read Issue #7 as well, and I'm refining my thoughts.
Something I only now noticed is that whenever Jon wakes up, he isn't wearing his glasses, but he IS wearing other articles of clothing. Boxers, Straight Jacket, a, uh, well, noose.... The glasses are often nearby, which is interesting. It's like the Sleeper is shaking the Glasses off towards the end of the sleep cycle. It also tells us that Jon isn't really physically changing when he sleeps, which is very interesting.
The biggest source of Red was when Jon locked himself away in the old mineshaft. That contained the Sleeper for the entire night, though it really did a number on the walls. It's scattered across town, primarily in the paint, but on random volleyballs and sports equipment, a whole optometrist's office, that sort of thing.
We now know that the Glasses give off some kind of radiation signature that can be picked up on a sensing device. It doesn't appear to spread or affect other items, so I'm going with the Red being some sort of energy or chemical on these objects.
The Blue is pretty symbolic, as far as I can figure. it's not a material or energy, like the Red, it's just in association with the Laboratory.
But I think the Sleeper doesn't like the Red. This trouble started when the mineshaft collapsed, and the old mineshaft was VERY red. The Sleeper tries to get rid of any Red objects on it, though that is a bit suspect. This is going to be more relevant to the origin, I think. It's mentioned that something like this has happened before in this issue, though a more minor incident.
We've also gotten our first description of the Sleeper, and it's... blurry. Which I think plays nicely with how Jon's clothing isn't destroyed.
What I'm going with now is that the Sleeper is some kind of energy being or psychic presence that has hitched a ride in Jon's mind and uses it whenever Jon can't. It has nasty psychic powers or energy projection that allows it to carve up things as if it was a large animal. It's effectively a demonic possession, though I wouldn't call it a demon in the Christian sense. I didn't even track the symbol being drawn out until you mentioned it, but it might be part of how the Sleeper works. Namely, it wants to draw this symbol.
Oooh, now that's nasty, that's a nasty thought. I think, given that the Sleeper has no physical body and dislikes the Red, it's looking to fully possess Jon's body. It can't do that all the time, it can't overcome a conscious human mind. In order to do so, it needs to make sure its mark is fully on Jon, which has been corresponding to paths it has taken through town. Once it does, it won't fear the Red any more and can leave town for elsewhere.
I think the only solution present is for Jon to die and for the Sleeper, when it leaves his body, to be trapped in a location completely surrounded by the Red. I think it's happened once before, with that missing girl. She was the Sleeper's host, and her father managed to figure things out enough to stop the Sleeper, trapping it in the Mineshaft. When the Mineshaft collapsed, the Sleeper was free to try and take over a body. I think it chose Jon only because Jon was in the right place at the right time for the best ability to draw its symbols. The Pill isn't going to work; it's loaded with whatever chemical is associated with the Red, but like the Hulk, the Sleeper is just going to spit that bullet out again.
So this is more like Demonic Possession, but the Lab has been approaching it scientifically to figure what the Sleeper is and presumably how to stop it or use it for some sort of gain. They don't want to get attached because chances are good they'll need to kill Jon. That's just how this is. I thought it was more like the Incredible Hulk, but with no physical transformation present, this is more reminiscent of spiritual matters.
Yeah, I thought it was interesting that when Jon was turning (due to avoiding whatever they were putting in the liquid) his vision became blurry, like the glasses stopped working because his eyes got better when he became the Sleeper.
I'm going to give the series a re-read and see if revisiting knocks anything loose, but I'm so excited to see how the story wraps up.
Your take on psychological dread over gore is so astute. It makes me wonder, what if this focus becomes the new standart for genre horror? The implications for narrative depth are significant. Areciate your clear insights on creator vision.
The horror of dread is not remotely new, even in comics. Humans have been doing dreadful things to each other for as long as we've had a semblance of free will. Garth Ennis does dread very well, but tends to add at least an image or two of gore per book. I'd argue that Harvey Kurtzman's war books were the first great books full of dread absent anything supernatural, but even those come from Conrad and earlier literary practitioners.