I'm so glad to hear it that the character Dreamboy is a self-created, original, SUPER HERO!

At least he could be a Super Hero of graphic novel proportions in his dream world. I am not normally a fan of graphic novels - I still think of them as comic books on steroids - but this can be a funny and adventurous adult comic ( I mean a comic written for adults - as opposed to one written for kids - there's no need at the present to pursue the "adult entertainment" side of the business and I don't really think Joe has put this place together with that in mind - although perhaps someone else IN THE FUTURE might turn this character into one like that if Dreamboy gets popular enough - I've heard there are such things on the internet) and would work out pretty good as a cartoon (excuse me - animation) as well.

The contrast between his waking world and his dream world can make his mp3 player a magical portal of sorts to another dimension.

How about this for an idea?

Let's say Dream Boy is Derek Dunwoody (or choose another name) in his day-to-day life - a normal, reasonably intelligent, and misunderstood (we can insert more adjectives at a later point), High School senior (US education system - last year before graduation if he is going to be from another country). But Derek has a sixth sense of sorts. Whenever he is feeling stressed he tunes the world out by listening to music - he has done this for years much to his aloof parents' chagrin (they are normal people that love him but with 5 kids to take care of, and Derek being the middle child, Derek has not always received the amount of attention they would have liked to have provided him).

The rest of the world thinks he is daydreaming whenever he listens to his MP3 player, which may have been true in the past, but as you will soon learn, is no longer the case!

He is beginning to realize that now, whenever he listens to this MP3 player that his mysterious Aunt Dreama (prounounced Dree-ah-mah) recently gave him for his 18th birthday something magical happens - he wakes up in a dream world where everything is perfect! And, to top it all off, he can fly, and swim underwater for hours on end without needing to take a breath, and lift heavy weights without feeling any pain, and see through walls, and dodge bullets, and accurately tell you what day it was if you just give him a date in the past or the future, and calculate difficult math problems in his head before others can punch the same problems into a calculator, and put on a blindfold and find his way using echolocation, and see through the blindfold. No wait, I better re-think these superpowers a little. Also, the ones about adding numbers, and predicting the day of the week sound a little too geeky for the comic book world.

But the point is that he HAS all these superpowers in his dream world. The problem - the reason for conflict - is that he has all these super powers in this dream world where he can fight crime, defend justice, and rescue tiny kittens from trees, but nobody - absolutely NOBODY - needs his services here because everything is perfect.

In short: In the real world he is impotent and powerless while in his dream world he is powerful and impotent - get it?

I think this concept has all sorts of room for further develpoment and limitless avenues for different, very funny, story lines. He's a mismatch in both worlds, and maybe there is another world out there where he is a perfect fit. The story line could focus on this quest for a portal to where he actually finds HIS perfect world.

If this idea sounds interesting to the people involved in this collab - I'll develop this further (or watch someone else develop it - as tends to be the case here at hitRECord with all the great talent). Chigwinkle's song is a perfect as a theme song for this redundant superhero!

And before anyone says this concept is not in line with that of shiweiart's recent writing, I want to take this opportunity to beg to differ, because I am sensitive and feel the need to defend myself before I get attacked - sorry, that's just the way I am. And if I don't end up getting attacked, then I would like to apologize in advance for begging to differ with no need because I am sensitive and feel the need to not offend anyone so much that I am compelled to say I'm sorry when there really isn't any need - its just the way I am. Where was I?

Oh yeah - the reason this doesn't conflict with shiweiart's recent writing :

He was walking on the street looking at all the poverty,
Going out with his big big smile, inocent like a child
Going out with his big big heart, loving like a child
he saw all the eyes looking down at him
people didn't value him.
He imagined the earth to be so beautiful,
to be full of wonderful soul
He couldn't cope with reality and hide away in this dream land place
So saaad to see these mans, losing their hope for themselves
He felt so lost so he ran away in the dream land place
where he could find peace and imaginary smiles.

...is because this image can be the one his girlfriend has of him. It's sort of a counter-image he has created for her. Sally Solemnety (or choose a better name) graduated last year - the two have been dating for three years now. She is a great writer and her weekly column "Dreamboy" was picked up by Yoohah News (we can change that name as well) and she is making her living through this column. It is the most followed column on the internet!

They are engaged to be married. Derek can't bring himself to tell her the truth because, he thinks, if she knew the truth, she might reject him. SO only the readers know the real truth about our superhero while Sally has the comic book world convinced through her weekly on line column that he is what SHE says he is. So its a story WITHIN a story based off of what he TELLS her about what he's doing while he is "zoned out". The animations of the two stories could even be different to distinguish between the column Sally writes and the story written for the readers of the comic book (I mean, graphic novel - which has great potential for an animated mini-series by the way!).

Worked for Shakespeare - why not us?

Additionally - and this would be a cool twist if we could figure out how to engineer it - Derek would visit multitudes of other worlds in our stories, but in the end decide that SALLY's story was actually right and that he really needed to focus his efforts in the world into which he was born - that the real superhero lies in all of us, and don't go chasin' waterfalls, and do they know it's christmas, and feed the world, and that if you want to make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make a change, and you are the wind beneath my wings, and we are the world, and all those other cliche songs out there. Am I cynical? Maybe, but I honestly believe that this would be a cool twist to the story if - as a team - we could work it out. And If we do it right, it won't seem too clichee.

I am posting this as a reply in shweiart's conversation area (shorter version) and as a contribution to chigwinkle's collab.