In this review of Sleep #1 from Zander Cannon, we meet Jonathan, known for being pure and good…or is he?
Sleep #1
Writer: Zander Cannon
Art and Main Cover: Zander Cannon
Variant Cover: Ryan Browne
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: May 21, 2025
Sleep #1 opens with Jonathan waking up on his couch to a ringing phone. It’s his friend Tabby, getting in touch with him to make sure he’s okay. The reasons for concern? 1) He’s late for their planned pre-church coffee date, and 2) something weird had happened in town the night before, and it wasn’t far at all from Jon’s house. He’s not aware of the issue, pretty sure he’s slept through it. What he is aware of are the facts that the front door’s open, his cat “Mittens” is missing, and there’re mutilated cow pieces all over his lawn.
Upon getting to church, he speaks further with Tabby. The pastor is giving a sermon on the nature of sin, mentions the name of an apparently infamous local (Jeremiah Lawson) in said sermon, and then brings in a guest: Hippocrates Nicoli, an old classmate of Jon’s.
After the service, Jon meets up with Hipp, who had left town to pursue a music career. It turns out that Tabby works at a lab, doing biomedical research, and Jon’s career is at a coffee shop. Jonathan heads off for his shift at the shop, meaning they’d have to continue catching up with each other later.
At the shop, we see a bit of a normal day for Jon, where he’s familiar with everyone that comes in, including another former classmate that’s grown up to become a cop. He’s asked to open the next morning (and his boss lets him take her leftovers from lunch), and Hipp and Tabby eventually show up at the shop.
During a break, the trio chat a bit more, talking about what had happened the night before (one theory is that looked like the actions of a wolf).
After closing up for the night, Jon encounters an apparently homeless woman outside of the shop, giving her some money when asked. He knows her as Mrs. Lawson (though she reacts negatively to the name).
Continuing on his way, he comes across another apparently down-on-their-luck figure. But this one has a shopping cart containing an open can of red paint, has a trail of said paint running along the ground, has a few specific words written on his coat with it, has some around his eyes… Jon attempts to give him some cash to help him out, but one pointed look from this guy causes him to back off.
He gets home, looking around for his cat a bit more, eating the leftovers from earlier, and eventually goes to sleep. Poking out just slightly from under the couch is a cat-sized collar, bearing the name Mittens and a few splatters of blood…
So, first and foremost, let’s go into the art style for Sleep #1. It’s immediately striking, keeping to a limited color palette of grayscale with pops of red here and there (like Jonathan’s glasses, the red paint, Hipp’s right-hand bracelet, and the check written at the coffee shop…but interestingly, not the blood). The way everything is drawn immediately evokes a hand-drawn zine from the 90s, right down to the lettering. It’s established as taking place in 1996, when one looks at the date on the check. In the back of the book, the process behind the story’s art is explained as being done digitally, while keeping the inherent charm of the hand-drawn look.
Setting-wise, the small-town in Sleep #1 feel is pretty well-established. There isn’t a name given for this town, but it does have that “everybody knows everybody” vibe that’s so often associated with smaller towns. I do sort of wonder if Tabby’s a newer addition to the place. This is her first time meeting Hipp, so it’s not likely that she went to school with him and Jonathan. But Jon’s boss Myrna technically did go to school with the two of them…as their teacher who eventually opened up the coffee shop, instead.
Going back to the color scheme for a moment, most of the red pieces denote a significant player in this whole piece. But so far, the biggest thing about the check being written in red is that it tells us exactly when it’s set: June 6, 1996…which comes sort of close to 666 (just remove the 9). And when Jon’s asked to open the next morning, it’s at 6. The number 6 just feels very significant for this story, and factoring in the sermon about sin…that’s definitely got to be a theme for this comic.
Sleep #1 looks like it will be an interesting one. Jon’s established as a nice guy, willing to help the homeless. His boss even calls him their resident Golden Boy, doesn’t smoke, and looks like what one might picture with the phrase “He had an honest face”. But with the proximity of the prior night’s carnage to his house, the fact that he doesn’t remember anything about it, and especially the bloodied collar of his missing cat being right under his couch…Somehow, a werewolf theory comes to mind, given the nature of how those stories tend to play out. One big hole in that theory, though, is the lack of an apparent bite on his person anywhere.
There’s also the fact that things didn’t get weird until Hipp returned to town and he’s one of those marked by a Significant Red Piece. But is he a source of this, or just a red herring?
Wondering if the guy with the red paint is, himself, this Jeremiah Lawson character that was brought up. There’s also the possibility that he’s got something to do with the recent weirdness.
Final Thoughts
With a good strong setup and even stronger visual language, it’s worth it not to sleep on Sleep. Sleep #1 sets up an intriguing mystery, and evokes a bit of 90s nostalgia without being too over the top about it.
