“Is all that we see or seem,
But a dream within a dream?”
The Dreaming is a supernatural mystery-thiller about twin sisters Jeanie and Amber who arrive at a remote private boarding school with a history of vanishing schoolgirls, only to find through a series of strange dreams that it is haunted by something frightening and evil. A Lovecraft-inspired tale set in the Australian bush, this is a story for ages 13+, and is light on gore despite mild horror overtones, and aimed at anyone who enjoys an atmospheric story.
The Dreaming was first published by TOKYOPOP in 2005, and republished by IPI Comics in 2023 in a revised print/ebook second edition (here are a list of changes, ending remains the same). It is currently a 3-book series, with a side story and a sequel in the works.
Buy ‘The Dreaming’
US Orders: Buy the ebook/print edition from Amazon US (Vol1, Vol2, Vol3) or Barnes & Noble (Vol1, Vol2, Vol3)
Read Online: Read via GlobalComix
Australian Orders: Distributed by NewSouth Books (Vol1, Vol2, Vol3).
Comic shops stocking “The Dreaming” are: Impact Comics (Canberra – vol1, vol2), Dee’s Comics (Canberra), Kinokuniya (Sydney – vol1), Kings Comics (Sydney – vol1, vol2), Abbey’s/Galaxy Bookshop (Sydney – vol1, vol2), All Star Comics (Melbourne), Minotaur (Melbourne).
Read ‘The Dreaming’
‘The Dreaming’ is a 3-volume series for now
| Rated: | T for Teens. Ages 13+. |
| Languages: | |
 | Vol 1-3: Turkish edition – publisher Tudem |
| Audience: | There is no blood, gore or violence in the story (all implied). It is a story written largely for teenagers, but which adults can also enjoy. |
| Read if you like: | H.P. Lovecraft, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Others, Twilight Zone, The works of Edgar Allen Poe |
| Download: | The original 1st and 3rd print editions of “The Dreaming” has paper dolls included in the books. I have part1 and part2 here for download if you want them. Right-click with your mouse and press “Save As” to download them. |
| New version: | The new 2023 version of “The Dreaming” series has been revised, with minor alterations to the plot, but the same ending. A list of changes is here. |
Story — Gallery — Reviews — Read Chapters 1-3 Online — Changes in Revised Edition
The Story
Amber and Jeanie are 15 year-old students at Greenwich Private College, a private boarding school located in New South Wales which is connected to vast virgin bush. The distinguished school has a hundred-year history, and is run entirely by its vice-principal, who has a strange and inexplicable prejudice against identical twins.
After settling in and meeting their new friends, the girls learn more about the history of the school and its mysterious surrounding bushlands, which they are warned against going into. This is because, time and again, young girls from the school have wandered off into the bush, and then vanished without a trace – as if the bush swallowed them whole. It has never been explained, just accepted by those who live in fear of it.
Soon after, the twins began having identical dreams, which neither can understand the meaning of. Exactly what is the meaning of the dreams? How are the dreams connected to the history of the school? And most of all, what is the mystery behind The Dreaming?
Series Information
The Dreaming is a 3-book series, with an additional 20-page short story. It was published from 2004-2007 by L.A.-based publisher TOKYOPOP, and collected into a single book in November 2010 called “The Dreaming: Perfect Collection”. The Perfect Collection contains all 3 volumes, an additional 20-page short story, colour art inserts, and an interview with me.
The series was a success when released, and has since been translated into many languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Finnish, Indonesian, Japanese, Icelandic, Russian and Turkish. I even participated a week-long visit to Istanbul, Turkey to promote the series, courtesy of Turkish publisher Tudem. There was a movie in the works, but with the revised edition coming out, circumstances have changed.
The series’ 2023 return
The series went out of print after the original publisher TOKYOPOP shuttered its print-publishing operations around 2010, and the series went out of print after that despite the demand for a print edition. In 2023, the series was acquired by a new publisher, and returned in print/ebook format with IPI Comics, an imprint of Australian independent publisher IFGW who publishes internationally.
Due to these new circumstances, the series had some art redrawn, and some minor parts of the story were rewritten. Additional material were added to all 3 volumes, and the short story at the end of the “Perfect Collection” was rewritten and added to the end of vol3 as a bridging chapter. This is because the series will now be able to continue, with a side story and a sequel in the works.
