Rick Veitch
Sample dreams from Rick Veitch's dream comix, as collected in three vols: Rabid Eye, 1995, King Hell Press (the first 8 issues of his comic book series Rare Bit Fiends); Pocket Universe, 1996 (from issues 9-14), and Crypto Zoo 2004 (from issues 15-20; this batch goes back to tell his first big burst of dreams, age 22, in 1973-4).
Veitch's dreams are very unlike mine--they're overwhelmingly guy stuff--work, fights, machines, comix, monsters, war. Women and femme stuff are marginal. But it's a vivid, courageous baring of this man's churning, surreal dreamworld--one more intense (both content and depiction) than rival grayscale dream-art books: Jim Shaw's Dreams (all dreams in a night get a single text-page plus facing illustration), or Jesse Reklaw's Dreamtoons, 4-panel dream-cartoons. Veitch has a bit more room to be raw--he typically takes a full, dense comic-book page for each dream, and occasionally several. Only Julie Doucet's multipage dream-comics come close.
Yet Rick's notes reveal that such dream-scenes in full context meant things for him omitted in the actual comics--some dreams were even psychic. I'd rather have seen fewer dreams but his real, full dream-process. Oh, well, that's MY thing--and even in Rabid Eye he did include that appendix--quite helpful for any modern dreamworker. And Crypto Zoo does have such notes, adding layers way deeper than the simple shock of dream-surrealism (many dream-artists never seem to go beyond this). I wish all three books had notes like this! But then I'm a research geek.
Rick's early dreams have (at least for me as a Californian) a distinct New England/Abenaki flavor a bit like (but better articulated than) Jack Kerouac's Quebecois roots in his Book of Dreams. A big family full of brothers, rural boredom, sexism, drugs, petty crime, working class worries. Sounds like the 70s version of today's Reservation Dogs. A lot to cope with, and human institutions were no help; his dreams were the only guide out. Friends died. Dreams saved his life.
I can relate; dreamless, I'd be dead too.
RELATED TOPICS: short to long: Roswila's Dreamku (dream haiku) - Larry Vigon's one-page dream paintings with facing illustration - Dreamtoons, Jesse Reklaw's 4-panel dream-cartoons - Wayan's Dreamverses, a cycle of 64 one-page illustrated dream-poems - the multipanel grayscale dream-comics of Jim Shaw - Julie Doucet's multipage dream-comics - Wayan's Gif Series (limited-color multipage dream-comics) & Dreamtales (fullcolor multipage dream-comics) - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
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BELLOWS BRIDGE: by Rick Veitch, Dec 1973, a dream of a battle on the border of dreaming On the bridge between waking and dreaming, a jet plane duels a T. Rex. But the jet strays into dream space, becoming a pterosaur--and soon, Rex lunch... |
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THE BEST HOTEL: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; an escalating surrealist dream Rajiv keeps trying to convince me it's the best hotel in India: the orgy of biters, the bowls of twitching fingers. But it's only the oracular spirits that really impress me... CAUTION: CREEPY FINGERS |
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COMICS & DREAMJOURNAL: by Rick Veitch, Jan 1974, a life-path dream I'm trying to jam together my dream diary and my first comics. My grandmother's skeptical. But at last, with an audible 'click', dreams and comics suddenly merge... |
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COWBOY, HORSE, CAT: by Rick Veitch, Nov 1973, an initiatory dream A graduation parade has a papier-maché cowboy (hollow ego?), a giant rampaging stallion (unconscious), and a mama cat who calms him (anima)... |
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CREATORS' BREAKOUT: by Rick Veitch, c.1995, a career-advice dream The House of Comics has a shabby annex jammed with self-publishers. We make a human ladder and climb out a high window, but I don't fit; as the tenement collapses, I must smash the windowframe to free... |
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DAD THE WORKAHOLIC: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; an emotional blowout dream In the paper factory where my dad worked all his life, I find him on his deathbed. Even as he fades, he's still trying to please his bosses... |
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DOPPELGANGER: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; 6-page hostage-dream comic; shamanic? Tony works as a courier in Sarajevo till he inadvertently delivers a bomb. Held by a warlord for months, he dreams within the dream, and draws those dreams... CAUTION: GRIM |
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DOUBLE FUNERAL: by Rick Veitch; c.1995; a nightmare on the First Gulf War? Two kids I grew up with are dead. We carry their still-smoking corpses by the home of George Bush... CAUTION: BURNT BODIES |
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EGO FACTORY: by Rick Veitch, late 1974/1, both a Jungian & career-advisory dream I go to work at the factory, clock in, strip naked, and build my... self! Myself as art. A long slow job, but when my workmates ask, I'm admit I'm happy with me at last... |
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THE EGYPTIAN EXHIBIT: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a psychedelic Pygmalion dream I panic as statues come alive at the museum, but they're all about energizing a mystical pyramid... |
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FLY SOLO: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a joyful flying-lesson dream I tell the angel teaching me to fly that I'm not ready to go solo yet-- I'm wobbly, the terrain's unknown. He lets go, and I... |
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GINSBERG UNMASKED: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a diagnostic dream Comics character Doctor Blasphemy, on stilts, bares his secret identity: poet Allen Ginsberg! But who chopped off his missing fingers? CAUTION: BLOODY FINGERS |
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HELL I SUPPOSE: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a dream with a rockin' sense of sarcasm I'm gloomy about the state of the world, but my alter ego cheerfully explains we're dead and in Hell--as a demon train rolls up with Elvis Costello on the roof singing "This is Hell I suppose"... |
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IF ONLY I COULD: by Rick Veitch, c.1995, an eerie underground dream Soil turns to air for me; I float in the dark between tree roots and stones, thinking "If only I could remember my name"... |
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IT IS THE ONLY WAY!: by Rick Veitch; c.1960; a child's career-predicting dream My bedroom window is choked with dirt. I dig up to the surface and find a man reading comics. He says 'It is the only way!'... |
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IT'S TOO LATE!: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a surreal apocalyptic dream I'm in World War II, asking a reporter to keep quiet about our secret weapon. But it's already gone off, melting and distorting the whole cartoon world. It's... |
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MARVEL PATROLS: by Rick Veitch; c.1995; a punning nightmare on being an independent cartoonist The comics industry degenerates into civil war. We peddle all night to avoid the Marvel... |
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MARVIN, CRASH: by Rick Veitch; Feb 1974; a predictive/warning dream My "friends" pull me away from the girl of my dreams, push booze & pot at me, and won't even try to climb the rope to success. But Marvin saves Evel Knievel from a motorcycle crash. Sounds good--until, ten years later, I hear how Marvin died... CAUTION: GRIM AFTERMATH |
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NAZIS BURN MY ART: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; the primal art-nightmare Nazis call my simple architectural drawing a social protest, take it at gunpoint, and toss it in the ovens. The commander mocks me with its ashes... |
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ORGY BELOW THE SURFACE: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; an embarrassing dream Under the surface of my comics panels, a tiny horde is having an orgy. I can't publish this, it's too embarrassing! Wait a minute. That one is me... CAUTION: MICRO-ORGY |
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PIGEON SHAMAN: by Rick Veitch; Feb 1974, a dream-comic on Jungian shadows. Bums tap on the diner window. I tell them to buzz off, until I really look at the latest--a shaman dressed as a huge pigeon. He's no panhandler!... |
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PULL THE PLUG ON THIS WAR: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a surreal dream I'm a Confederate officer. The only way to save my men is to end the war by pulling the plug at the bottom of the lake! I dive in, fighting a Yankee, who... |
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RARE BIT FIENDS: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a recurring dream personifying dreamwork? The wildcat Rare Bit Fiends slinks out of the hills to stalk and maul dreamers--until one day she rears up to teach a dream workshop... |
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ROLODEX: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a dream about successful dreamwork? The posse lost their enemy; reluctantly they asked a tracking detective--me. They found him where I knew he'd be--from eating my Rolodex cards... |
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SCULPTING WITH NEIL GAIMAN: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a complex predictive dream I take my friend Neil Gaiman to a park where we sculpt a giant horned head. Months later we collaborate on a graphic novel. The course of the project's full of echoes from the dream... |
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SEA PARADE: by Rick Veitch; c.1995; a dream on media versus dreams We need to get down to the sea, but Disney Corporation blocks the way. Wait--we're dreamworkers! We ooze through the walls, and cheer the parade marching in on the tide... |
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THE STONE MOVES: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a mysterious breakthrough dream Repeated attempts to move a gigantic, sacred, saucerlike stone all failed; but now, with the world's biggest cranes, we get it on a truck. It crawls past adoring crowds... |
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STREET OF THE FUTURE: by Rick Veitch; Mar 1974; a predictive dream I'm a bike courier. I take a packet of fifty potent dreams up Dream Street and deliver them to the year 1980... |
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THREE DREAMS & A COINCIDENCE: by Rick Veitch, c.1996, predictive shamanic dreams Three dreams set on Abenaki holy ground, of weird shamans--one ashen, one pumpkin-headed, the third goofy-faced--lead me to visit the site. Where I find the river's washed up that third shaman's face... CAUTION: WILL BOTHER E.S.P. SKEPTICS |
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TORNADO FADE: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a time-travel nightmare We escape tornadoes by fading out and rematerializing in a future dream... But one of the tornadoes manages to follow us from the old dream to new... |
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VAGUE HOUSE: by Rick Veitch; c.1995; a dream labeling its own symbols! I grope through fog to the Vague House. Fog inside, too. Find a stone carved with an Eye of Horus, and know it's my anger. Find a bigger stone scarab, and know it's my REAL anger... |
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THE VOICE OF GOD (THIS IS IMPORTANT!): by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a mystical "oops" dream God speaks in surreal images from the sky, and I hurry to write down what God says. But I find I wrote mere squiggles on the page... |
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