Doktor Sleepless is a comic book series that is published by Avatar and written by Warren Ellis, the same man who gave us Transmetropolitian. Set in the fictional city of Heavenside this comic follows the Enigma, Dr. Sleepless and the people who reside in this futuristic society.
It deals with Transhuman themes and technologies and the ideas that the future is quickly degrading and becoming something the people don’t want to deal with and a life they don’t appreciate. Really this world could be in the same universe as Transmetro, and earlier life before the world gets as crazy. There are definite connections, including what seems to be a very basic iteration of the Maker and D.I.Y. Body modifications to keep track of people or even to touch and feel across great distances. Doktor Sleepless, then known as John
Reinhardt deciding that the only way to gain significance in this world it to become an Enigma, the Science Jesus, the mad scientist, Doktor Sleepless. What proceeds is an odd roller coaster of death, insanity, and dismemberment as we are given a view into the life of the Doktor. We our shown the city of heavenside and their subculture of grinders (the body improvement group) that is easily parralelled with the Transmetro Transients and others like them. Along with all this are metallic-Angel like being appearing over the city and causing people to go blind, no one, with the Exception of Sleepless seems to understand what is going on. Throughout the story Doktor Sleepless’ intentions are unclear, is he good or bad, right or wrong, is he a Jesus-like Savior or there to bring destruction. Towards the end of the story, we are given some idea that his intentions are murderous and seem evil, but could there be more to it than meet s the eye?
Overall I did not appreciate this world as much as I did the Transmetropolitian. I felt the plot overall suffered from slow movement and just really odd, unexplained happenings. Doktor Sleepless has an a really odd plot, however it does give a different views into Transhuman ideals. It has things such as algae therapies to get off drugs, ocular implants that are like futuristic Google Glass, Golgi Masks to see the Events throughout heaven side and super weapons that make people see mechanical angel beings that make their eyes bleed. Additionally, the comic revisits the idea we discussed in class about how everything is given coding identities so they can be processed into raw information.
Doktor Sleepless despite my overall problems reading the book, did leave me curious as to how it would end. It puts into light a very interesting, albeit odd world with alien like creatures from different dimensions, future technologies, and a scary look at the future human disposition. It again asks the question, will these future technologies make us less human, how will they change our ideals, and will they truly make our lives better. For that, I do appreciate these books and for that I would recommend trying our Dr. Sleepless and seeing if it interests you.
COMM 2302 (Spring 2013) 