He sees your dreams. When he has to, Sonambulo can wrestle with them, too. 25 years ago, Rafael Navarro unleashed his supernatural noir luchador detective into the comics world. Though technically it may be 26 years later (thanks, pandemic), Navarro has collected the original series into a gorgeous 25th anniversary edition hardcover. Sonambulo in Sleep of the Just packs just as much punch today as it did then. Hindsight only makes it glow brighter.
In this original outing, Sonambulo faces Satanists but not, technically, monsters. Hired by a Senator to find his daughter, what begins as a missing persons case turns to more than murder. “¡Que la cancion!” is the masked detective’s refrain, and over a few hot L.A. nights, you can hear the music pulsing underneath times good and bad. There’s also a dash of atomic age sci fi thrown in the cocktail mixer, but the main flavor is the supernatural. The Sleepwalkers sleeps dreamlessly. Instead, he was cursed with the ability to see into other people’s dreams.
The terrific choice in “Sleep of the Just” is to not really explain it; he just has that ability. By the end of the fifth chapter, Navarro lays out an origin of sorts, but by then, we don’t need to care. It reminds me of how many classic superheroes had origins that boiled down to single pages, if it was explained at all. Sonambulo is a man of action; who needs to explain why when there’s evil underfoot?
Navarro’s storytelling also shows off his day job as an animator. Each page ripples with dynamic layouts, blending influences from El Santo movies to German expressionism. Few comics artists play with lighting quite the way Navarro does. The storyboards are right here — why hasn’t a production company picked this up?
There’s a timelessness to Sonambulo that makes him just as fresh — and needed — today as he was 25 years ago. He may be gruff, but he has integrity. And if Navarro wants to collect the follow-up issues into another deluxe volume like this, I’m there.
You can follow Rafael Navarro on Instagram for more of his work and information on how to pick up this book.
Full disclosure: Long after I became a fan, Rafael Navarro agreed to collaborate with me on a story in Bela Lugosi’s Tales from the Grave #1. I still don’t know how or why I got him to agree — perhaps like Sonambulo, he could see my dreams and thought it would be fun to make one come true.
