David & Liz Lillie’s comic  Dreamkeepers has been on my radar for quite some time; I love the artwork posted here, but I have never had the opportunity to read it in its entirety. Finally, over the holiday break, I had the chance to curl up with all three volumes.

The story takes place in the Dreamworld, a parallel universe inhabited by the protectors of humanity’s dreams, exotic anthropomorphics called DreamKeepers. Each keeper has a unique magical power that they use to protect their corresponding human dreamer from nightmare forces.

…or they used to. The nightmares were defeated long ago, and it has been so long since any have been seen that belief in them has faded to myth. Society has grown complacent, and the use of keeper powers discouraged and eventually outlawed. But the dark things are real, and with the help of corrupt Dark Keepers they plan the conquest of the DreamWorld. Only a small underground resistance recognizes the true landscape of impending war.

Four young keepers stumble upon the nightmare plot and find themselves pulled into the looming war, and must help each other to stay alive while learning to master their keeper powers.

The artwork of DreamKeepers is lush. It combines streamlined, graphic character designs with incredibly designed settings. It is almost too lush in the early volumes; the images are sometimes difficult to decipher. But by volume 3 the art has really hit its stride, the images are sophisticated and readable, the color is rich, and the layouts are fantastically dynamic.

While drawn in a cartoony style, this isn’t a book for kids. It opens with a keeper sacrificed to the king of the nightmares; and while it is often light, funny, and almost childish in places, it is also by turns dark, sexy, and terrifying. It embodies what I consider the best of the anthropomorphic genre: it has all of the lushness and beauty of hand-drawn animated features that I grew up with, but without skirting around more mature themes. Using such themes in the service of the story allows for, in my opinion, more sophisticated storytelling.

And the storytelling is very good. There are four or more major story threads unfolding at any given time, and they are skillfully woven one to the next. The world is well-realized, and has that rare feeling of existing beyond the panel borders. The characters are a wonderful selection of crazy cartoons as well as genuine personalities, and the relationships between them are well-done. The nightmare creatures range from disturbing to terrifying. The action is amazing—volume 3 contains a scene in a library which manages to be both terrifying and hilarious, and is probably one of my favorite sequences in any comic I’ve ever read.

DreamKeepers is one of those comics that is better read by the physical volume; there is so much going on, and it unfolds in such a cinematic fashion, that it would be vexing to be at the leading edge of the story waiting for the next page to appear.

Highly recommended; would read again. =)