Becky Cloonan Turns Abandoned Pages Into Fever Dream, a New Experimental Art Book on Kickstarter

Becky Cloonan is opening the sketchbook doors wide with Fever Dream, a new 116-page experimental art book launching on Kickstarter.

Instead of a traditional graphic novel, Fever Dream lives somewhere between a sketchbook, visual diary and fragmented comic. The book collects never-before-seen pages, discarded drawings, sequential art and illustrations that Cloonan developed while experimenting with tools, tones and ideas outside the pressure of a conventional finished narrative.

Cloonan described the project as something that originally began life as a graphic novel before transforming into a creative laboratory. That shift became the point. The finished book embraces inconsistency, atmosphere and raw process, allowing images and recurring ideas to create a story that remains intentionally just out of reach.

The visual language pulls from Cloonan’s love of black-and-white cinema, including films such as Rashomon, The Third Man, Marketa Lazarová and Vampyr. That influence gives the project a dark, cinematic tone that should feel immediately familiar to readers who follow her horror and gothic work.

Longtime fans may also recognize characters and themes that connect back to earlier Cloonan minicomics including Wolves and A King’s Story. Rather than sanding those ideas into a clean, linear package, Fever Dream leans into their dream logic and lets the imagery do the heavy lifting.

The Kickstarter campaign includes signed softcover and hardcover editions, sketched copies, limited letterpress bookplates, sticker and miniprint bundles, collector packages and higher-end reward tiers featuring original artwork and commissions.

Cloonan’s career spans creator-owned comics, major publishers and illustration work across multiple media. She won an Eisner Award in 2013 for The Mire, received an Inkpot Award in 2023, and added two more Eisner wins in 2024 for Somna and The Kelpie. Her credits also include Batgirls, Wonder Woman, Gotham Academy, The Punisher, The War and numerous poster and music-related illustration projects.

For readers who enjoy seeing the creative process before it gets cleaned up, flattened and forced into a neat box, Fever Dream looks built specifically for that appetite. The campaign opens to early backers September 1, 2026, ahead of its full launch October 1.