Dylan Dog 428 - Where dreams go to die, review

Dylan Dog 428 - Where dreams go to die

How is a good story born? Leveraging a good idea. "Ideas are in the air", the writer just needs to grab them and make them his own. Thus opens the new register of Dylan Dog 428 - Where dreams go to die, with texts by Bruno Enna and drawings by Luca Genovese, accompanying the reader in what wants to be much more than a simple adventure of the investigator of the nightmare.

Dylan Dog, where dreams go to die

In this new issue of Dylan Dog - Where dreams go to die, we plow through a territory that is not at all foreign to Craven's tenant Road, or that of science fiction. In fact, net of the author's introductory quotes (we'll get to those later), our story begins in an impossible setting, studded with impossible shapes ... until our Old Boy wakes up in his bed and in sweet company. .

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With some metanarrative interventions here and there, the story proceeds with Dylan brought to force in a platform in the Pacific, designed and engineered to hide the remains of a spaceship piloted by Guise that now appears to be emitting signals that only the Craven Road tenant can understand. And here is the sci-fi story, even if as we have anticipated its nature offers a narration behind the scenes.

Stories like these were often proposed and appreciated in the past, especially in the "Sclavian" era, even if this time - it should be pointed out - we are faced with something different.

It seems that the character has been placed in the hands of a writer who does not fully know Dylan, a writer we will know later in the story, and always the same seems to have used the protagonist in a highly arbitrary way. How?




Another point. We believe we have never seen a Dylan so skilled in leading his hands: in the moments in which he is surrounded by the security of Guise we all would have expected to see him succumb. Well, to be honest, Dylan was never the Jason Statham you see in this story.

The metanarrative Dylan

Se if you are a fan of cinema and especially of the science fiction genre, you cannot help but be inspired by Fantastic Voyage directed by Richard Fleischer and the novel of the same name inspired by the original screenplay with the pen by Isaac Asimov. Still great cinema with constant references to the work of Christopher Nolan: it will be impossible for you not to think of Tenet and Inception. All works where the metanarrative component turns out to be the true skeleton of the narrative and bearer of the final message.

Clarifying that having used narrative elements other than the metanarrative that was used many years ago in Dylan Dog, we are faced with a work very different. Yet, we were amazed to see this story strongly anchored by narrative expedients and issues related to the "profession of writer" to that of the month just ended Dylan Dog 427 - Life and its opposite, as if both authors had received the same submission by the editor of the newspaper. A beautiful coincidence that is highlighted even by the curator in the Horror Club.



The tables of this story are rendered by Luca Genovese, an author in his second test in the regular series of Dylan (the his first work dates back to Dylan Dog 418 BIS: Qwertyngton) already known for his experimental licenses. Once again we have a face of Dylan who shuns a little those traditional canons that we all know, while we find him very comfortable in presenting abstract and more imaginative forms to his audience. The cover of Cestaro Bros. fully captures the experimentalism that characterizes the entire album and delivers a cover rich in color and psychedelic references.

Dylan Dog 428 - Where dreams go to die is a story that with all likelihood will not appeal to those who prefer a more traditionalist Dylan, with all his peculiarities and therefore grappling with the nightmare as we know him albeit with all its facets. When you get to the end of the book, you realize that it was a story within history and that - in his paper universe - Dylan hasn't even lived it. But what is really real in life?

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World's longest known Covid infection went on for 505 DAYS, scientists reveal

A Covid patient battled the same infection for nearly 18 months, in what is believed to be the world's longest known continuous case. 

Scientists say the unidentified British patient — who eventually died — was severely immunocompromised.

Medics did not reveal what condition the patient had, how old they were, or whether they were vaccinated. 

But they studied nine different patients with weakened immune systems because of organ transplants, HIV and cancer. 

Scientists believe having Covid survive and mutate within the bodies of immunocompromised patients unable to shake off the infection could lead to the emergence of new virus variants similar to Omicron

No10's £400MILLION Covid hotels farce: Just one in FIFTY people who were quarantined during pandemic tested positive for the virus, report shows 

Just two per cent of passengers put up in the Government's £385 million quarantine hotels ended up testing positive for Covid, a report has found.

Arrivals from 33 'red list' countries had to pay £1,750 to spend ten days in self-isolation at a designated hotel.

But the managed quarantine service – including hotels, security, transport and tests – cost £757 million between February and December 2021.

The National Audit Office found only one in 50 quarantined guests tested positive in that period. 

While £428 million was recovered from passenger fees, taxpayers were left with a net cost of £329 million.

Paying for extra Border Force staff, the passenger locator form system and follow-up costs added another £157 million to the bill.

Just £3million was recovered from passenger fines – leaving a total cost to the taxpayer of £483 million.

John O'Connell of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: 'While the Government had to react quickly to Covid developments, taxpayers will question the scale of squandered cash.'

Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, who chairs the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: 'The Government never really got a handle on the numbers or whether its border measures worked effectively.'

Gareth Davies of the National Audit Office conceded ministers 'had to balance many competing objectives when managing the border'.

A Government spokesman said the measures 'bought vital time for our domestic response to new variants'.

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Researchers from King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation uncovered the cases.

Four patients died, and two needed antibody therapies and antivirals to shake off the infection. Two eventually recovered without treatment.

The ninth patient is infected with the same bout of Covid they caught 412 days ago.

If they fail to clear the virus by their the next follow-up, they will eclipse the 505-day record set by the other patient.

In total, the nine patients had battled Covid for an average of 72 days before either recovering, dying, or the study ending. 

The team also spotted a case of an 'occult' infection.

This is described as being when someone is thought to have recovered by testing negative, only to later be found still harbouring the virus.

This phenomenon — different to 'long Covid' — is seen with other pathogens, such as Ebola and hepatitis B. 

Immunocompromised individuals are particularly vulnerable to Covid because their body's natural defences are much weaker.

For this reason, the NHS says they should have had four jabs by now.  

Their weakened immune system means they have trouble recovering, meaning they harbour the virus for longer.

This can give the virus time to mutate inside their body, potentially leading to a new variant that can go on to infect others. 

Some experts suspect this is what was behind the emergence of the super-mutated Omicron variant, which swept the world in late-2021.

The UK team's findings support this theory, with regular genetic sampling collected from the patients revealing that five developed at least one mutation seen in known Covid variants of concern.

One patient's virus went on to develop a total of 10 mutations that also separately evolved in the Alpha, Gamma and Omicron variants.    

Study author Dr Luke Snell said it provides evidence that new Covid variants could emerge in immunocompromised patients.

However, he added it remained unknown whether this was the origin for strains like Omicron. 

'It is important to note, however, that none of the individuals in our work developed new variants that became widespread variants of concern,' he said. 

Fellow author Dr Gaia Nebbia argued that the research highlighted the importance of developing treatments to help immunocompromised patients shake off Covid.  

'Immunocompromised patients with persistent infection have poor outcomes, and new treatment strategies are urgently needed to clear their infection,' she said.

'This may also prevent the emergence of variants.'

The patient with the occult Covid infection tested negative for the virus several times before developing symptoms again several months later.

Genetic analysis of this virus showed it was a version of the Alpha variant, which was extinct in the UK by the time their symptoms returned.

This, the authors claimed, suggested the virus had remained dormant in the patient's body months after the initial infection.  

The patients were recruited to the study between March 2020 and December 2021 and had tested positive for the virus for at least eight weeks.

Most people recover from a Covid infection within a few weeks according to the NHS.  

The researchers presented their findings to the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Portugal.