Morning of February 7, 2014. Friday.
Brief synopsis for casual or infrequent readers: For whatever reason, my dream reveals the "missing comic book" of my childhood that I did not come to have because of my mother's possible confusion in its similarity to another comic book cover (or two, in fact). This dream revelation begins to build after an unusual session where I am ineptly investigated as a killer, where the crime may actually have been committed before I was born (possibly relevant to how some "new" comic books I read were reprints from before I was born). The murder investigation setting may simply be a farce to eventually get my attention to focus on the comic book covers of my dream's climax.
In my dream, I am brought in as a murder suspect of an unknown teenage female. I spend most of my time in my dream standing at a counter (walking a short distance from it now and then in the same large room) of a type very similar to the local library’s but inverted (the setting already being a clue that my dream will resolve to "choosing books"); that is, forming a sort of inward angle of over one-hundred-ten degrees (not ninety; that is, not a square angle as the counter’s division relative to the two walls is not perpendicular), spanning across a corner of a large room, though the counter section on the left is of a shorter length. There are two main (unfamiliar) male investigators that go through various role-playing and questioning sessions with me, sometimes seemingly forgetting what they were saying or doing (or planning to do). It seems that nearly a day goes by, and I spend all my time standing or walking and am even clearly aware of the tiredness in my legs later on.
One of the reasons I was brought in as a suspect was because I was "chubby" (though I do more walking and other exercises than many people my age). Apparently, their reasoning is that someone who is larger or chubbier is "naturally" more likely to overtake a weaker or smaller person.
I am eventually vividly aware that they are wasting their time to too great of an extent for it to be a "real" investigation and at one point they also seem aware of this, but I seemingly am meant to have patience as if it is some sort of "game". I have no clear thoughts on who the actual criminal might be, although I do sense he is possibly a very chubby older single male. I tend to waver between complaining in a hostile manner to expressing a patient understanding of their methods.
I am asked to write my "version" of something the older detective says to see if my writing matches some sort of note the killer supposedly wrote and left with or near the victim in both writing style and what I "say". He tells me that I do not have to write exactly what he says but how I would naturally write "my" version of what he says - which is quite strange because one of the choices is to write "jellyfish" or not write it - something about writing "this is why all jellyfish should die" or write a similar phrase and leaving out "jellyfish" (there is no clue what the killer actually wrote) which will give them the evidence of whether or not it was me. However, I do not finish this "test" as the detectives are distracted and thus they go off on a tangent to some other odd concerns not related to the killing. I am also pondering if the killing took place before I was born, but that reasoning does not seem to matter to them even if true.
The younger detective talks about his mistakes and regrets of the past in similar work he had done before, although does not go into detail. I start to suspect that about twenty-five percent of people in jail never committed a crime. A few times I yell at them in frustration but am also laughing at a few points, even feeling a bit giddy as if I cannot believe how incompetent they are in general, including with their fill-in-the-blanks mentality and overwhelming proclivity to fabricate or be mistaken in environmental or personal cues (as I have often seen in real life with people in general but especially authority, as their tendency to fabricate and invent illogical, even physically impossible scenarios is baffling). Sometimes they seem like buffoons, other times more focused on their work. Sometimes they seem to be testing my reaction on questions that make no sense in light of the circumstances. I do get very annoyed over time and wonder why I happen to be the only one in the situation. I suppose it is possible that other suspects are being questioned or tested in other rooms, but I sense that this is somehow not the case. If it is not proven to be me, perhaps the investigation will not even continue.
At one point, I see a large cardboard box someone brings in which has a thinner purple blanket and somewhat formal-looking yellow (with white lacy trim) clothes - a shorter dress and blouse, I think. The blanket is sparsely woven of yarn (but commercially produced I assume), in a way that about twenty-five percent of it is open stitching so that you can mostly see through it - somewhat like a much lighter thinner afghan blanket. I am not familiar with the materials at all. They look like they might have been in the ground for a time. I just stand there patiently but am not questioned on the materials - they may just be testing my reaction.
Later, they seem to have at least seven or eight old comic books; the same ones owned from when I was about nine or ten years old. Supposedly, I had written my full name inside each book on the first panel of each comic (which I never did in real life), near the top and in neat cursive in blue ink. They are all Harvey comics and all of Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost - with a supposedly "fictional" one (though it was real) of Spooky playing pool and cheating. I guess people interested in collecting comic books and playing pool are also likely murder suspects.
From here, my dream mostly falls into somewhat abstract thinking relating to my puzzlement over the similarity of the different comic book covers as I begin to see additional Hot Stuff covers in addition to the Spooky ones.
What is strange, though, is that, thanks to a bit of research, I learned something I had not known. I thought I had all issues of Spooky when I was younger - but I had been missing one (likely due to the similarity of a cover of a comic book I already had). Coincidentally, the only one I was missing had a similar gag as the "Devil Kids" one I did have - that is, the main character going through a pool table - Spooky going through in a ghostly way and Hot Stuff burning his way through. Even more intriguing and somewhat amusing - I was seemingly taught in a subtle way by my dream - about a facet of "normal" (or consensus-based) human consciousness. There is apparently another "version" of the "same" Hot Stuff cover in real life that is missing the point entirely (although he is using his trident as a pool cue, which is supposed to be the gag in this case though also seems a missed variation on the other one where he uses a normal pool cue which would likely burn up) and he is at the pool table without any significant sight gag other than the trident as the "pool stick" (with no burning in to cheat). In my opinion, the ideal cover would have been burning through the table while using his trident as the "pool stick".
I have seen this fairly often in my life; that is, people writing, drawing, or copying the aspects of something in this way and missing the main point (although I do understand that metaphors and word plays and even certain types of sight gags or particular intent of images do not translate into other languages or even for certain types of people; for example - there is a well-known old Australian poster that conveys something different than intended - see image linked in this post).
My dream was partly influenced by a track I was working on about a year ago where an African chant seems to reflect a set of English phrases: "Johnny not wait, ooh ooh, why wait, he wanna play pool" and including the line "patience is a virtue". Sometimes I am amazed at how meaningful and intricate dreams are and literally revelatory (not symbolic) once you examine them more closely. I also noticed that the in-dream blanket was the same purple as the background color in the Spooky cover and the title in yellow as with the in-dream clothes.
