"Did you ever seen a dream walking?"

"Did you ever see a dream walking?
Well, I did.
Did you ever hear a dream talking?
Well, I did.
Did you have a dream thrill you
With "Will you be mine?"
Oh, it's so grand, and it's too, too divine!"
-written by Harry Revel, the lyrics by Mack Gordon

TGIF guys,

For today's post, I figured I'd talk briefly about a forgotten face from Marvel Comics. This forgotten face debuted in the 90's, alongside such characters as Darkhawk, Slipstick, and Terror Inc. Know who it is now?
I'm talking about Sleepwalker.

In case you don't remember this guy, or alien as it were, he was a member of an alien race that patrolled the Mindscape; the realm that exists between the mind of sleeping individuals and the real world. This place is filled with unimaginable creatures, creatures that could do harm to those sleeping. Sounds creepy huh?
Well these Sleepwalkers act as the"dream police", and make sure bad things don't happen to us while we sleep. So I guess if you have a nightmare, but aren't killed or harmed in anyway because of it, you can thank these guys for being able to wake up.

Since this is a comic book, of course Sleepy had to have a regular human sidekick/everyman character to relate to. So Sleepy, who's real name is unpronounceable in the human language, bonds with a regular joe named Rick Sheridan. Of course he's tricked into doing this due to the manipulations of his arch-nemesis, Cobweb. Yeah what a name right? That really seems to strike fear into the hearts of man....What ever.

Anyway, the two become bonded together and share space in Rick's mind or  body. I'm not sure exactly, but basically whenever Rick goes to sleep, Sleepwalker comes out to play and kick evil ass.
And you have to admit, this is a unusual gimmick for a comic book hero.

The Sleepwalker series, created by longtime Marvel creator Bud Budiansky, only lasted 33 issues.(June 91'-Feb 94')

Here's the link to the Sleepwalker entry on wikipedia.org:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepwalker_%28comics%29
Feel free to go there to get the story on Sleepy. An interesting fact I didn't know until going there myself for this post, was that Bud Budiansky  actually created this character in the 70's, but was just going to call him Alien. Well we all know when another creation/movie simply called "Alien" came out around the same time. Thus, Mr.Budiansky simply chose to save his creation for another day.


I myself on bought a few issues of the Sleepwalker series. This was during the weird and wonderful 90's, and alot of new characters and creations came out around this time. Like I said earlier, titles like Terror Inc, Darkhawk(who I also collected for a little bit), Deathlok, Slapstick, and this one all came during this period. They were new(with the exception of Deathlok) and different; creators were trying anything they could to create new stars for the industry. So yeah, I guess it does seem like most just threw whatever they had at the wall and saw what stuck. And while ultimately these characters seemed destined for the dollar box, at least someone was willing to create something new to entice readers. No harm in that right?
I think I'll do a future post devoted to recoiunting my comic buying experience during the 90's. This was when I was buying Flash, Green Lantern,and the Justice League(and occasionally Batman and Superman) during the early 90's, while buying most of the X-and Spider-man titles, as well as the Avengers ones(I was big into Iron Man and Wonder Man back then), and occasionally Darkhawk and Sleepwalker. And of course how could I forget those early image titles back then? I was a sucker for Marc Silveresti's Cyberforce and Jim Lee's Wildc.a.t.s. back then. Damn those were the days!

But like I said, that's another post for another day.

Ultimately, Sleepwalker was deemed to weird for mainstream Marvel fans, and was cancelled after only 33 issues. Yes he teamed-up with some the popular Marvel super-heroes back then like Spider-Man(who didn't he team up with? I think even my mom got to team up with ol' Spidey) and Ghost Rider, and even the Avengers and fellow 90's creation Darkhawk, but I guess he just didn't have that X-factor that most popular super-heroes have. Oh well......

He has popped up a few times here and there recently, but nothing that would guarantee that he'd have a regular spot in the MU. I think it's time he came back. I mean, if Slapstick, Terror Inc, and Darkhawk can make comebacks, why can't Sleepy?

Have a good weekend guys.........