“I Dreamed of Strange Lips”
Creative Staff:
Story: Peter Milligan
Art: Inaki Miranda
Colors: Eva De La Cruz
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
What They Say:
Do we really know what others think of us? Psychologist Dan Collins is finding out the hard way. While his body is kept alive by machines, he continues to search for who attacked him and left him hovering between life and death. Problem is, there seems to be a lot of possible culprits! Meanwhile Dan tries to help the restless spirit of suicide Adam Konrad – with potentially lethal results. Astral projections, homunculi, and gardening tips – all this and more in the penultimate issue: OUT OF BODY #4!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the series has progressed, things have been making a good bit more sense and have been coming together well, which is kind of Peter Milligan’s style. I’ve liked how it was introduced and the basics that we got but it became bigger over time while also becoming more personal with Dan, which definitely helps to draw you in more. Once more, Inaki Miranda turns in some really strong work here with some fantastic pages here that really do find some great little hooks to draw the eye toward. I really like how the astral side to things is being presented and just the way it all creates a mood with the multicolored pieces of it, which are really well-colored by Eva De La Cruz that helps to make it all the more interesting to read.
With this installment, Dan is even more of the focus in a way, which feels kind of weird to say. We see how he’s doing more of his work to figure out what happened in his astral form and that’s taken him to Milton’s. He’s not wanted to do this because of his general animosity toward the man and the fear of seeing time with him and Jodie together, which would drive a dagger through his heart. But getting into Milton’s mind is harder than he thought when all is said and done as he finds himself not only understanding the man and his issues more, but he sees himself through Milton’s eyes, and the thoughts of others, and it makes him start to realize that yes, Dan is the asshole in this story. And that’s hard to come to grips with, though the flood of memories of Jodie helps provide a break from all of this understanding.
While Milton is either getting questioned by the police or enjoying a new date with Jodie, Dan’s also trying to deal with understanding what happened to Adam, which has him visiting the kid’s father to try and get through there. That’s its own dark journey as along the way the astral form of Adam shows up. While he’s unable to help him, his telling Abi has her realizing – quite correctly – that it’s just bait by Fryne and that they have to be really careful. But it works because Dan has to help and is intent on doing so, though at least Abi will assist. We don’t get too far with this but watching Fryne’s trap unfold, and so obviously at that, works well and you just want to slap Dan around a bit and shout at Abi that she should clearly know better than that it would be as easy as it was going.
In Summary:
Out of Body continues to move well with what it’s doing and there are a lot of little moments that click here, such as Luke apparently taking care of the medical costs which really frightens Dan to seeing how Fryne is operating at the start. Its focus with Dan dealing with Milton really is good and I do wish we had dug a bit more into Adam’s father as well since that has a lot of potential. The time we get inside of Fryne’s house doesn’t make it clear just what kind of disturbing place it is – that’s more just from Abi’s comments – so I wish we had a better idea as to her warnings than just on her word itself. But it’s a solid issue that gets us closer to a real confrontation and perhaps some answers.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: September 29th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
