Continuing along the Silver Age concept:

Somewhere on the internet, there was once an April Fool's post (or along those lines) detailing how Sleepwalker was originally an unpublished silver-age Stan Lee and Steve Ditko collaboration, which the 90's comic was based on. I thought that it was the perfect missing link to Sleepy's story

Interestingly enough, Ditko did draw some aliens once in an old Marvel monsters comic that looked a lot like Sleepwalker...sort of.

Thanks Kris for formulating Sleepwalker's appeal so well! I'd love to see that as an intoduction to a Marvel Masterworks edition

A lot of people here have commented on the uniqueness of the hero, the supporting cast, and the villains, and so forth, and they're fully right. What I really like about the series is how in the background there was an overarching plot by Cobweb to invade Earth and frame Sleepwalker as the leader of the invasion-if you read between the lines of the series, you'll see it going on in the background, and how Cobweb screwed with Rick Sheridan's mind.

It's nice to see Sleepy getting his due here, and it'd be great if Marvel revived some of the old villains and turned them loose-it's criminal that guys like Cobweb, Psyko and the Office of Insufficient Evidence haven't been seen since then. I bet J.M. DeMatteis could have a field day with Psyko.

Granted, if you're looking for more Sleepwalker stuff, hopefully you'll find this worthy...

http://www.ironrodstudio.com/av2000/issue.asp?titleid=OWSWLK

Well written with realistic characters and a truly bizarre but noble and sensitive protagonist. Sleepy reminded me of early Silver Surfer comics mixed with Nightmask (an underated 80's gem) and that's pretty cool.
Don't let your 90's prejudice get in the way of a good read. DEADPOOL still has a comic and this is forgotten/Lampooned? Is there no justice?

I liked Rick's dog too.

If that "Sandman Done Right" quote isn't an urban legend, it's completely ridiculous except for the "dreaming" aspect the too couldn't be more different. It was clearly just Marvel marketing hyperbole in the Stan Lee tradition (although Stan had some respect and always called DC their "Distinguished Competition.")

I got into Sleepwalker when I was 12 - at a time when every comic on Earth seemed to be over-the-top, 80's action movies drawn (and more unfortunately, written) in something approximating Rob Liefeld's X-force style. Sure, they were cool. They were sometimes drawn well. But I couldn't relate to these guys. Most of the staples of that era - Cable, Deadpool, The Punisher, Wolverine even - were basically all little Rambos who existed solely to express angst. In 1991, at the age of 12, I couldn't care less about that.

To me, Sleepwalker was like the last Silver Age Marvel hero who somehow fell through a time vortex and ended up stranded in 1991. He was noble, thoughtful and maybe even a little naive. He had a good, original gimmick. He looked like no superhero I'd ever seen. His book was even a little corny and weird. Of course, this made him lame by 90s standards, but, to my 12 year old eyes, they made him something else. An actual, honest-to-goodness, you know, hero. I remember his adventures fondly the way some people might look back on Golden Age stories about Superman. Maybe not literature, per se, but damn fine stories.

I think the anachronism of this character coupled by the 3 deadly words allegedly spoken by DeFalco, has made Sleepwalker seem like a joke to people who didn't actually read his comics. But really, Sleepwalker is fricken cool. He deserves to be reexamined. Forget "Sandman done right." I'm interested in seeing Sleepwalker done right.

On the other hand I'm not fond of the faces Jon Romita jr's been drawing recently - people's chins seem to be getting smaller and smaller. I wouldn't call him a bad artist for that, but I'm liking his work less and less.

Sorry if I offended you... it just seems kind of sad that you let such a small thing ruin a comic for you. And you know, Blevins' work is no more stylised than plenty of other artists. Darwin Cooke's faces don't look like real human faces, nor do Mike Mignola's. MOST cartoonist's faces look like, well, marks on a page intended to represent human faces.

Which is why it's called cartooning, and not, say, portraiture.

Yes, it's a very dumb complaint to want human faces to look, y'know, like real human faces.

Kirbydotter...
My use of the wonderfully silly Kirby Sandman was not an affirmation, but an alternative example of something that I felt was more appropriate to compare Sleepwalker to. It's obvious that it's the Gaiman title that is meant.
Although, upon further thought, I'd have to say that (the original New Universe) Nightmask is even more comparable to Sleepy.
And, hey, Blevins did some art on that book too...hmmm...

"Brett Blevins is a terrible artist who has no sense of anatomy, proportions of the human body or perspective"

Man, if you don't like his style, fair enough; but that's just not true. His technical skills are fine. If you don't believe me, click those links I posted earlier. Amongst other things, you'll find some excellent oil paintings, including several nudes painted from life. The guy is a very accomplished artist. As a cartoonist, he tends toward a particular brand of stylism, one that clearly isn't to your taste. But that's not the same thing as being a bad artist.

Besides, any fan of Kirby critisising an artist for poor anatomy and perspective is frankly hilarious!

There’s nothing to be embarassed about in comics, Mr. Apodaiquiri.

Oh, there absolutely is. That Mary-Jane-sexy-maid statue, for example. Or the way Joe Quesada dresses. Or the ever-present cleavage on the majority of superheroines.

Every medium has its embarassments.

But if you think Sleepwalker is too silly, perhaps you could take up a less shameful hobby, like RPG cosplay or needlepoint.

Not too silly, too lame. I love silly comics. Me and silly curl up in bed together and read Madman, stroking each other's hair.

But Sleepwalker is just ugly, awkward, and indistinct. The dialogue in the page you put up there, for instance, is just awful. It sounds like this comic was written in the sixties.

Oh, and Sleepwalker is on the cover of Avengers The Initiative #1. I guess he is registered.

Like Darkhawk. We want Darkhawk!

To affirm that Sleepwalker was better done than either Kirby's or Gaiman's Sandman has to be a joke or a comment made under the influence of some lousy s#!t.

Finding some obscure comicbook and shedding light on it is one thing, but Sleepwalker and Terror Inc. SHOULD be left in the obscurity.

Please if you are out of ideas, just milk the Apes or Canuck themes some more. The is still some good stuff left to explore, and even the worse stuff is better than most 90's Marvel.

To everyone else, though, yeah, that's crazy talk.