Dave Stewart’s Walk In
Created by Dave Stewart
Script by Jeff Parker
Art by Ashish Padlekar
Cover by Celia Calle
Letters by B.S. Ravi Kiran, Nilesh S. Mahadik
Color by Sheeltal Tanaji Patil
Virgin Comics
Cover price: $2.99; Available now

After reading the first issue of Dave Stewart‘s Walk In, I am still not sure what to make of it. The story is simple enough. Ian is essentially a modern day nomad, traveling from one town to another in Manchester. On one of his many stops, he ends up at gentleman’s club where he meets and becomes enamored with a dancer there. Through a series of events, Ian ends up being the entertainment for the club in between sets. It is here that readers discover that he may or may not have these powers to see into people’s thoughts and dreams. What does it all mean? Does Ian really walk into other people’s dreams? I personally have no clue but then again, I was confused throughout this comic.

According to the creator, who is also one half of the 80’s musical group The Eurythmics, Walk In is based on his own life experiences during the 1970s. The 70s was an era notoriously known for rampant drug so if you expect the story written during this time to be pretty odd, you would be right on the money.

Walk In is very “out there” and could essentially work as the series progresses. It is definitely a book with some interesting ideas going for it. How did Ian get these powers, what can he do with them, and how does it fit in the grand scheme of things are just some of the questions that could be explored for this book but at the pace this book is going, I do not know if I can make it to that point. A book that is this strange would need a solid first issue to hook readers in and this just does did not hook me in.

The story just drags on and on with no real purpose. For twenty-two pages, readers are shown Ian using his powers, which range from reading people’s thoughts to entering people’s dreams, and is greeted by his audience with either fear or amazement. Nothing else really happens. It is like reading a comic version of Crossing Over with John Edwards. The story does introduce some characters such as the stripper, Astrid, but rarely goes into depth with them. It just seems to me that the story just mills about, much like what the character does in the book.

Jeff Parker, the writer of Agents of Atlas, assisted Stewart on Walk In by writing the script. Parker’s stories are usually interesting but either he is not gelling with Stewart or he just does not have enough to work with, but this comes off as one of his weaker stories. It just does not grab my attention like some of his other work. I was also not too happy with his method of storytelling. The idea of having Ian talk directly to the reader as the narrator worked in Ferris Bueller and in John Bryne’s She-Hulk run, but it just plain falls flat in this comic.

The art doesn’t help matters. Ashish Padlekar‘s art is not bad by any stretch of the imagination. I really liked the grittiness of some of the pages. It reminded me a lot of gritty European comics, which seems perfect for a comic set in Manchester. The storytelling is solid, but something about it just didn’t seem right with me. Padlekar’s art toes the cartoon/printed art realm too closely and really doesn’t capture the essence of a man traveling into another physical realm well enough. The only time I felt the art and the story were one is during scene where Ian invades the dreams of Astrid. The art on that one page was clean, almost ethereal quality to it. I thought it made perfect sense to use that this throughout the book.

Overall, I do not know if I can recommend a book like this. It starts off slow, to say the least. There are a lot of great ideas and storylines that could be potential explored and despite a slow first issue, I trust Jeff Parker’s writing and expect more from him later. Though with a $2.99 price tag, I think it is a safer bet to wait for later on in the year to check out this trade.