Dreamwalk Journal

An erotic CG webcomic by Ed Kline (artist) and Kishma Danielle (writer). The main story remains unfinished and is currently offline, but there have been a couple of SpinOffs, The Widow and Nightshade the Merry Widow, written by Danielle until her untimely passing in January 2014, since when Kline has continued Nightshade as a solo project. Kline has stated that the main Dreamwalk story will be reposted once the current (2014) Nightshade storyline has concluded, reprinting the original art before picking up where it left off.

Danny and Fleur, two young women from Earth, find themselves in the strange world of Cyeatea, via a kind of astral projection called "dreamwalking". Cyeatea consists mainly of a vast forest extending vertically through multiple levels, each with its own distinctive environment. It is inhabited by numerous intelligent, technologically advanced species of anthropomorphic insects and spiders.

Most people probably wouldn't associate insects with erotica (a fact which is lampshaded in the behind-the-scenes material), but on Cyeatea insects and arachnids have human characteristics, including prominent genitalia and Non-Mammal Mammaries. Also, they're all naked, and horny, and very curious about the "ooman" newcomers, who also happen to be naked and horny.

(Note: Word of God states that Cyeatean natives, although bigger than Earth insects, are on average a couple of inches/five centimeters tall - as are Danny and Fleur when dreamwalking. All measurements are from their perspective, which of course makes their world seem like an even bigger place.)

Another key point about Cyeatea's insect society is that nobody ever harms anybody else deliberately, because all disputes are settled with sex. Some of the insects and spiders do have stings, but they are used to inflict pleasure, not pain. It has careful plotting, good dialogue and excellent artwork.

Started in May, 2005. The webcomic went on hiatus in the fall of 2007 and eventually went offline.

Kline eventually began a Spin-Off strip on Drunk Duck, titled The Widow. This does not feature the "ooman" visitors, but rather focuses on Cyeatean spiders' sexual predation on insects (and is therefore more explicit in its sexual depictions). As of November 2011, the comic has mainly featured original stories and characters, although there was one uncredited reprint story from the original site, apparently to give Kline time to build up a strip buffer. In January 2012, the comic went on a brief hiatus and then was relaunched under the title Nightshade the Merry Widow, now officially crediting Danielle as co-creator, rebooting and slightly RetConning the storyline.

The three sites:
 * Dreamwalk Journal (the original, not currently available)
 * The Widow (available on ComicFury, no direct link due to NSFW content)
 * Nightshade the Merry Widow (Mature login required)


 * All There in the Manual: The original site also featured "Danny's Journal", which gave a lot of background to the characters and events. There was also a page on Cyeatean anatomy, which was intended to be the first of a series called "What the Hell is That?", but ended up being the only one. Kline later revived "What the Hell is That?" as a Q&A feature on Nightshade, alternating with story strips.
 * Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Killing non-sentient species is justified as long as it's in self-defense. When it comes to sentients, you can rob, cheat and fuck them blind, providing you stick to the rules of the "great game" of life, but causing injury or death is unthinkable. In Nightshade it's stated that murder and (painless) execution do sometimes occur, but extremely rarely.
 * Author Avatar: Danny is based on Danielle, and her boyfriend Johnathon (mostly referred to in the behind the scenes journal entries) on Kline.
 * Bizarre Alien Biology: In Nightshade there's a scene in which gets his head ripped clean off by a deep-dwelling lifeform. Then, while everybody else is trying to come to terms with his death, he grows a new head. It comes as a hell of a surprise since  Cyeateans can't do that.
 * Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Not so much the humanoid arthropods, although some predators can force their prey to become surrogate mothers. The creatures living in the depths are another matter, however. In Nightshade a ship from the upper realm encounters some giant beasties whose males impregnate females with sperm torpedoes that use eyes for guidance. Once they avoid the females' pheromonal countermeasures the torpedoes cause the females to explode, scattering larvae with teeth in all directions. Including the direction of the ship.
 * Breast Attack: Some of the anthro insects get stung right in their Non-Mammal Mammaries (amongst other places), but it's a subversion because (being an erotic comic) the stings inflict pleasure rather than pain.
 * Buxom Is Better: Most mature sentient females on Cyeatea have big breasts, including Danny and Fleur. Since the humans are not in their original bodies, it's possible that their breasts may have been augmented to conform to Cyeatean standards of beauty.
 * Can't Take Anything With You: A variation involving astral projection rather than Time Travel as such (although they seem to be in the future). When dreamwalking to Cyeatea Danny and Fleur can't take anything from Earth - except, for some reason, their sneakers, Danny's glasses and Fleur's baseball cap, all scaled to fit. At one point Fleur laments the fact that they can't take a stimulating Cyeatean beverage back to Earth.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: To some extent, Peppers. Being a fly she's not overly endowed with brains. On the other hand, she does accidentally discover a non-lethal weapon to use against the beewolf raiders, and volunteers to be a test subject for it.
 * Even more so in the case of Beans, another fly, whose "heroic rescue" of a female fly from a tribe of ants ends in farce.
 * Cool Ship: The Starwasp in Nightshade. Works just as well for exploring the deep realms of Cyeatea as it does for space exploration. SFW image, but NSFW page header image, behind filter
 * Deadpan Snarker: Fescue the deep-dwelling fly in Nightshade.
 * Disintegrator Ray: There are both hand-held and (in Nightshade) ship-mounted varieties. They can only be used for defense, and only against non-sentient creatures.
 * Dyson Sphere: Not actually stated in the webcomic, but according to one behind-the-scenes journal entry Cyeatea is just one of numerous worlds on the inner surface of a Dyson sphere called (I kid ye not) Velveteen. However, Kline has elsewhere referred to Cyeatea as a planet, so the Dyson sphere idea may be an abandoned concept.
 * Eldritch Abomination: The native lifeforms inhabiting the deepest reaches of Cyeatea's ecosphere are huge and deadly. Normally nobody in their right mind would go there, but in Nightshade a rescue party is sent to find an ant queen and wasp baby who have fallen into the depths.
 * Everyone Is Bi: Since predators don't discriminate between male and female prey, there's no distinction between "straight" and "gay" sex except when it comes to reproduction.
 * Eye Scream: In Nightshade, during the fight with the beewolves, one beewolf gets his eye kicked out. Word of God says it's only a glass eye, the victim having lost the real one in an accident. However, since that's not actually explained in the strip, it looks uncharacteristically violent.
 * Filler Strips: When a new Nightshade arc was delayed in March 2013 Kline posted some concept art from another story, The Stormrunners, based not on Cyeatea but on ancient Mars. (The Stormrunners was officially launched on its own pages in August 2014.)
 * Funetik Aksent: The beewolves in Nightshade are depicted as Cyeatean Valkyries, and speak with stereotypical German accents. Rule of Funny applies.
 * Giant Eye of Doom: The Living Ship encountered by some of the deep-realm rescue party in Nightshade has an absolutely humongous eye. And it knows what they are. Take a look here, if you dare. (SFW image, but NSFW page header image, behind filter.)
 * Go Mad From The Revelation: In Nightshade's deep-realm rescue story, this appears to happen to bee queen Leonurus after witnessing a violent attack by some of the nasty critters that live in the depths, though it's probably more a case of shell-shock. Cyeateans (with a few notable exceptions) really aren't psychologically equipped to handle violence at all.
 * Heli Critter: Cyeatean dragonflies are roughly the size of ocean liners and fly using genuine helicopter-style rotor blades. (The blades also chop up any vegetation they come into contact with, producing a salad rain for critters in the lower levels). At one point the protagonists hitch a ride in a cavity in a dragonfly's head.
 * One image by Kline (not appearing on the main comic site) shows Danny and Fleur riding much smaller dragonflies (intelligence level not established) which also have helicopter-like rotors.
 * Hungry Jungle: It's probably safe to assume that Cyeatean plants and animals are carnivorous if A) they move; B) they can't talk; and C) they aren't trying to get into your (nonexistent) underpants. Well, the last one isn't entirely accurate; actually there is a sexual component to all predation on Cyeatea, so if a plant eats you you'll probably be experiencing too much pleasure to worry about it. Fortunately many carnivorous life forms aren't fatal to sentients.
 * Interspecies Romance: Cyeatea is inhabited by numerous intelligent humanoid insect and arachnid species, all nude with exaggerated sexual characteristics including big boobs. There's lots of sex between species thanks to Male-to-Female Universal Adaptors, some of it in the form of ritual combat, which eliminates the need for real warfare. Naturally the visiting human women also get to experience Cyeatean sexuality first hand. Although it seems that all Cyeatean arthropods have some human DNA, so whether they're really separate species is debatable.
 * One Q&A strip says that different types of Cyeatean arthropod are usually mutually infertile, although there have been a few sterile hybrids.
 * "It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It": Cyeatean "prey" struggle and complain at first, but they do kind of enjoy the experience, although the intensity is overwhelming. In any case, no harmful intent is ever meant or inferred.
 * This Nightshade strip (NSFW behind a filter) makes it clear that some prey actively enjoy the experience.
 * Living Ship: The scoutcraft from the Starwasp discovers what seems to be one in the deep abyss. It's huge and apparently ancient.
 * Multi-armed and Dangerous: Earwigs have two pairs of arms. Natwick the hillbilly earwig in Nightshade plays two fiddles simultaneously.
 * My God, What Have I Done/Oh, Crap: In Nightshade, after the heroes have come up with what they think is a non-lethal weapon to defeat the beewolf raiders, they turn it on the beewolves' hideout... and it completely trashes the place with apparently fatal consequences for everyone inside. Since murder is pretty much the ultimate taboo on Cyeatea the good guys are understandably upset.
 * Naked on Arrival: Well, everybody, obviously, but especially Danny and Fleur who are the newcomers. Cyeateans do actually have a concept of nakedness, but for them it simply means not wearing a waistbelt. On the first page the two 'oomans have already been given belts to preserve their "modesty".
 * Non-Mammalian Hair: Most of the anthropomorphic insects and arachnids, both male and female, have hairlike stuff on their heads.
 * Non-Mammal Mammaries: Naturally. See Buxom Is Better above.
 * The last two entries are debatable, however, since as mentioned under Interspecies Romance, all Cyeateans do appear to be at least partly based on human DNA.
 * Our Nudity Is Different: None of the insect/human hybrids wear any clothing at all - except for woven waistbelts, without which they consider themselves naked.
 * Plot With Porn: There's less actual porn than you might expect in the main storyline, apart from the ubiquitous nudity. There's a lot more in the spinoffs.
 * Rape As Comedy: It has to be admitted, the depictions of sexual predation in The Widow are pretty funny. And as mentioned, Cyeateans don't have our attitude toward sexual consent or lack of it.
 * A possible Crowning Moment of Funny occurs in one Widow strip, when a captive wasp has a rather... extreme reaction... to a spider's stimulating sting.
 * Scenery Porn: Vast exterior and interior vistas.
 * Shout-Out: One page of the original deliberately mimicked some shots from Forbidden Planet.
 * Spin-Off: The Widow and Nightshade have featured Types 4 (recurring characters) and 8 (new storyline under different name).
 * Sub Story: Although not actually set underwater, the scenes in the depths of Cyeatea's atmosphere might just as well take place in the deep ocean because of the intense atmospheric pressure and monsters of the deep.
 * Time Skip: In the original strip there was a long sequence set inside Helianthus Hive. Kline apparently got bored with drawing interiors (however vast), so the storyline jumped forward to a sequence where Danny and Fleur are once again journeying - and then the strip went on its indefinite hiatus.
 * You Won't Like How I Taste: Fleur says the line to her hungry spider companion. Who didn't really want to taste her... in that way, at least.