In this review of Sleep #8, questions are answered and Jon’s story comes to an end.
Sleep #8
Writer: Zander Cannon
Art and Main Cover: Zander Cannon
Variant Cover: Kevin Cannon, Zander Cannon
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: March 4, 2026
This review contains spoilers
So, it’s the last day. And when we pick up with Jon this time around, we’re seeing everything through his Monster-form POV. He’s seeing the chaos and destruction before him (and is pretty sure Tabby got away), and makes his way outside.
Outside is Mr. Edison, who doesn’t seem at all shocked to see the towering monster before him. In fact, he seems to offer himself up for death at its hands. Jon tries to get some answers as to just what is going on…but Monster-form rips Edison apart.
Jon has a horrified breakdown, then opens his eyes to see Calie Lawson, heading to her volleyball game. She’s upset that her dad didn’t show up (assumes he’s drinking again), and that her mother showed up drunk, and decides she’ll get herself home.
All while Jon’s seeing these visions of the past, he’s hearing the panic and anger of the townspeople as they try to kill him. He also notices that his Monster-form is being shot at.
The scene shifts to Jeremiah, after Calie’s death, trying to both quit drinking and keep his mind occupied. Pastor Stephen and Chief Nicoli both seem to offer some support (and possibly a nudge back off the wagon).
Back to Calie, she gets into a bike accident and Edison brings her to his shop to help her out with her scraped knee.
As Jon wonders why he’d be out to wreck the town, he’s still being shot at. It’s also shown that communication between his normal human form and Monster-form changes, because nobody’s capable of understanding his pleas for answers.
At Edison’s optometrist shop, he ultimately murders Calie and moves her to the trunk of a car. Jon briefly sees himself in her place. Eventually, Jeremiah’s found dead from a car accident, with a liquor bottle and an apparent confession about Calie’s death.
Monster-form manages to find the body, and separates from Jon as it takes the corpse into the mine. Jon sucumbs to the wounds and collapses…where he’s joined by his cat that’d disappeared way back at the start.
I had been curious (and eagerly awaiting) how Jon’s tale would end. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. But this was an amazing way to cap the whole thing off, both in terms of story and visuals.
Story-wise, we finally get the answers about what had happened to Calie, and with that, a stronger look at just how horrific this town really was. Near the beginning, with Mr. Edison resigning himself to his fate, you already see that he knew it was coming. With the reveal of Calie’s murder, he’s caught onto the fact that he’s not immune to this monster’s wholesale purging of the wicked.
The monster may have wrecked the whole town, but the people it killed were mostly those involved in the murder and cover-up. And Hipp, but that was more a case of self-defense (with potentially a bit of rage about how he’d been treating Tabby). And the fact that it all comes back to the optometrist’s shop definitely explains the emphasis on glasses through the whole thing.
And now, we get into the visual aspect. The way the Monster POV is portrayed is stunningly done and quite effective. There’s a red haze over everything outside of that form, including the speech bubbles, which ties right into just how utterly disorienting it would have to be for someone. And it’s the first time Jon’s actually awake in that form, so his horror and confusion is raw and palpable, and rendered perfectly in those scenes. Also, the various “z”s, the accepted shorthand for snoring in comics, being a part of the layout? An excellent touch.
The stark black and white visuals that come with the visions of the past are particularly eye-grabbing. Not only do they draw attention to the reveals, but they also push the 90s indie comic feel, and I appreciate that.
Near the end, everything’s back in grayscale…except for the mine. No, that has this sort of red/orange/yellow gradient reminiscent of a sunset. It gives off this vibe of closure and peace, as Calie’s body is carried in.
A thread throughout this issue is how Jon had only wanted to be good… And that’s likely why he was chosen. The only connections he’d had to Calie, it seems, were that he went to high school with her, and got his glasses from Edison’s shop (Calie hadn’t gotten any from there, but her father had). He’s established early on as a good person. So, his moral purity in comparison to some of the others makes him a natural candidate for some kind of vengeance monster.
I do wonder about the fallout from everything. The last time Tabby’s seen her best friend, it was after he’d shifted into this shadowy form. Portraying the monster as this large, shadowy form was a great way to go about it. No defined facial features, just size and brutality, and some degree of otherworldliness.
But yeah, the aftermath of the whole experience could be interesting. After how many shots Jon had taken, even if the worst of them had been absorbed by his other form, he’s probably dead. But most importantly, he’s human again. And his cat’s returned to curl up beside him.
Final Thoughts
Sleep has been a consistently great story, and Sleep #8 caps it off in the best possible way; with some much-needed closure.With as many comics as I’ve read and loved, this is one of those I definitely NEED a physical collection of the whole story. I’ve loved following each issue as it came out, but as a whole? Even better.
