Comic Review

“The Nightly News” by Jonathan Hickman.

Whew where to start on such a dynamic Graphic novel. In a nutshell the comic is a commentary on modern media. But it’s far more than that. Hickman tackles the idea of media in a very witty but intelligent way, addressing both contemporary and farfetched conspiracy issues. John Guyton is a radical assassin for a terror group that targets reporters. The story juxtapositions the satirical reaction of well know ‘big wigs’ along with the ‘serious’ element of the terror group. The story line by no means is a work of novelty, although parts may be semi-familiar. In fact the humor and intelligence behind Hickman’s work is astonishing. He imbues theory and current social media with a running commentary that makes the reader question the reliability of the whole thing.
Story aside everything else about this graphic novel is amazing. The most immediate component as you open the book is the image/visual style. The style is nothing short of catching and the intricacy is very apparent. There are panels but not in a traditional way. Boarders don’t always serve to separate visual components instead they often times serve as ‘sub’ panels to nearby content. Let me take a step back and explain further. Hickman’s visual art is unique in that he does multiple layers at once as well as relying on a technique that mimics interactive media such as TV or computers. A good example is a moment that takes place on page 2 which looks to be two distinct panels. Panel 1 is a traditional visual panel in so much that it depicts characters and objects directly relevant to the story. Between panel 1 and 2 is a white boarder that deceptively bleeds into panel 1 yet contains a small script stating “To find out more about globalization read below. However, if you’re like me and only care about your own personal entertainment (certainly not anything like children dying of dysentery in Togo), keep reading on the next page” and an arrow references to move to the next page that continues with similar visual panels. Yet panel 2 below is comprised of dense textual components coupled with spare visual symbolic icons that look to be of a highly stylized PowerPoint presentation describing “globalization” with data charts and other ‘factual’ breakdowns. This is trademark Hickman; a constant flow of ‘media’ and ‘digital’ information within the main story. Yet he passes it off very naturally so that it appears non-intrusive to what is being told ‘primarily’. Which is an obvious ruse being that every component of Hickman’s work only further builds the overall story. When I first opened up “NN” I was a little bit intimidated by these ‘media’ side notes and all the little charts as well as arrows leading to more ‘side’ information. It’s almost like a non digital representation of hypertext. Yet within a few pages I was hooked and the reading became more fluid.
The second part of the visual experience that is striking is the lack of backgrounds. Most of the art takes place in a realistically portrayed but highly shaded (reduces the details of certain objects) style that is presented mostly in the forefront. The back ground, although present occasionally, is typically occupied by arbitrary designs such as repeated horizontal black lines, or a grouping of overlapping circles. This helps to focus the detail on the characters and the dialogue but at the same time refocus when necessary to the background when it’s an important aspect of the story. Hickman is very apt at guiding the reader and focusing on various aspects of his story through his artwork.
And unlike many scholarly journals Mr. Hickman even includes a list of sources at the end of his trade paperback. This is partly done in accordance to the thematic elements of the story. Although the color scheme and the jarring style may put off some readers I highly recommend this. It is currently one of the most underrated modern comics that is nothing short of art beyond what many comic book writers are doing today within content and the visual/stylistic capacity. What Hickman does is fresh in almost every way and for only $16.99 it’s quite a bargain for the depth of the content.