Throughout history, many societies, including our own, have systematically diminished, oppressed, and othered women. Institutional misogyny has come in many forms. From limiting female agency in simple rights like voting, having a bank, or bodily autonomy. To outright forms of physical violence like locking women up for hysteria or enacting a combined spiritual, moral, and punitive framework of accusing them of witchcraft.
It’s a weird, insidious form of control, policing thought and behaviour, and remains a reprehensible part of aspects of society. It also lays a fertile groundwork to subvert patriarchal narrative and for women to take back their power. To tell their own stories that raise up the witch, or falsely accused, and paint a richer picture than one of subjugation.
Such is this year’s winner of the Eisner Award for Best New Series.
“With each moon’s rising comes the night…and with each night, transgression.”
Somna by Becky Cloonan, Tula Lotay, Lee Loughridge, Dee Cunniffe, and Lucas Gattoni is a horror story set during the burning times. Through the eyes of Ingrid, the wife of the local bailiff, we see a kind of murder mystery regarding the witch trials and her own suffering of night terrors that bring a demon. Maybe.
The story is sub-titled “A Bedtime Story” which hints at both its hallucinatory, almost fairy tale and dreamlike nature in parts and its dark eroticism. Against a backdrop of a village plagued by the witch trials and the murder of one of its townsfolk, the story explores Ingrid’s issues without getting any sleep, of not being fulfilled by her husband, and of her best friend’s proclivities. It delves into manipulation and control, of betrayal, and in the sensuality and erotic nature of Ingrid trying to take back her agency. And getting struck down by church and state.
Alternating back and forth between a lush dream state illustrated by Tula Lotay and a more grounded waking world with line art from Becky Cloonan, the artwork in this series is stunning. It’s a great way to indicate Ingrid’s two different states and it gets very interesting when the lines start to blur. I’m not sure how the colour duties were rolled out, whether Lotay painted her own and then Lee Loughridge and Dee Cunniffe handled Cloonan’s work, but it’s gorgeous. The colours reinforce those two movements. There’s a softness to the dream sequences mixing in blues, pinks, and purples, and a more solid, varied colour scheme to reality.
Lucas Gattoni’s letters bridge the two with a journal-like narration box for Ingrid’s internal monologue. And a neat unique word balloon and font for the demon.
“How foolish to waste precious worry on dreams, when living nightmares hold the true horror.”
Somna by Cloonan, Lotay, Loughridge, Cunniffe, and Gattoni is a rich tale of one woman’s attempt to navigate a world designed to hold her down if she doesn’t fit within its strict confinements. Of a woman potentially beset by sleep paralysis and betrayed by society. Of a fantastical inner world that offers comfort from a horrific reality. Or maybe it’s just sexy times with a demon by a deeply troubled woman in a town filled with corruption. It’s easy to see why this would pick up the series an Eisner nod.
This year’s Eisner Award for Best New Series was also one of the first few for a brand new publisher. Cementing the possibilities and heights offered by the company.
Classic Comic Compendium: SOMNA
Somna
Writers & Artists: Becky Cloonan & Tula Lotay
Colourists: Lee Loughridge, Dee Cunniffe & Tula Lotay
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
Publisher: DSTLRY
Release Date: June 26 2024 (hardcover) | November 22 2023 – March 24 2024 (original issues)
Read past entries in the Classic Comic Compendium!
