Sleeping Beauties Vol. 1 Stephen King (Author) Owen King (Author) Rio Youers (Author) Alison Sampson (Artist) Jenn Woodall (Cover Artist) Triona “Tree” Farrell (Colorist)
This is the graphic novel adaptation based on the horror novel by the same name.
Its drawn in a beautiful style that hovers between surrealism and realistic portraits of violence.
The premise is as follows: A bizarre sleeping sickness, known as Aurora, has fallen over the world. It only affects women. All women. This is not based in the distinction between chromosomes, (as when all men were wiped out of existence in Y: the last man) but in a more gender fluid way: whomever has the heart and soul of a woman, regardless of genetics, is prone to fall asleep.
Their faces get covered by a brilliant cocoon, and if you try to wake them, they become violent and mostly hurt the people around them, badly.
There is a subplot following a woman that is unaffected by the sickness. A woman attuned to a mystery voice, that she calls the Mother Tree. She calls herself Eve, and leaves a trail of carnage behind her.
The images of a global pandemic are disturbingly similar to the ones we have seen across the globe since 2019. The novel was written in 2017, so of course they fall into the category of very wild and specific imaginations. People have always been attracted by the possibilities of the plague, and what it makes us do.
I trust the King family is going somewhere with this narrative. The volume collects the first 5 issues of the comic adaptation, and there are more to follow.
‘Sleeping Beauties Vol. 1’ is on sale since May 4, 2021.
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Publish Date: May 4, 2021
Type: Hardcover
DIAMOND CODE: OCT200477
ISBN: 978-1-68405-760-3
Age: 18+
Featured image by Alison Sampson, all images belong to IDW Publishing
