Image Comics brings you one of the most famous creators who is best known for mystery/crime comics about a Jekyll and Hyde story of a man who is facing the darkness of himself which is Night Fever the graphic novel. Oh boy, this time I think it’s time for a real treat because I’m going review and talk about a comic from one of the best mystery and crime comics of all time which is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. I remember when I reviewed “Kill or Be Killed” years ago, that comic was so badass that there’s a serial killer in New York and I was thrilled to see the violence and gore happenings in the fictional New York. However, this comic will take you back to the past and will follow the story of a man who is trapped in the darkness fighting himself. So if you’re new to reading Brubaker and Phillips books, then let me give you a little background about them. Mr. Ed Brubaker is one of the most acclaimed writers in comics, having with Mr. Sean Phillips around to make graphic novels together, they published these comics around the world in several languages. But he’s not only good at writing comics but he also wrote some scripts for TV shows such as HBO’s “Westworld” and Amazon’s “Too Old to Die Young”. However, Sean started drawing comics professionally when he was a teenager at the age of 15 and has worked for all major publishers such as Marvel and DC Comics. However, he concentrated on creating books on the comics that I know such as Criminal, Kill or Be Killed, and other titles that he and Ed have published on Image.
The moment when I see the front cover, not from this book but from the posts by Sean on Twitter and Instagram, this cover art is the real deal. The first thing is that you see a man covered in darkness wearing a masquerade mask while he’s holding a knife. And I got to say, I LOVE THIS COVER ART, someone should make an art meme about it and have every comic artist that I know draw their characters posing as this one because having this guy posing himself as a serial killer is so satisfying. Speaking of satisfying, there’s a quote written by Charles Yu who wrote “A taut, riveting story, as disturbing as it is satisfying…” And he’s right, because whenever I read their books in the past, the story is disturbing, but it also makes me thrilled to see what happens next. Now of course I’m used to reading violence and gore because Killed or Be Killed had me excited and I welcomed it. It’s a beautiful thing to discover and that made them my teachers for learning the story of each comic that they published, well my second and third teachers because my first teacher is actually the creator of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, my favorite manga series. Ok so in order not to spoil anything of this story because of my hype, I’m going to give you the short version of the story.
The story goes about some old man named Johnathan Webb, a writer who is on a plane to Europe for a business trip reading some books by Denn Pickett. And what’s so strange about it is that the book is so random that you could see a caveman eating some dead people. However, his friend David keeps going on about that book a few times last year until Johnathan started reading it on the plane while drinking his whiskey. However, the narration goes on as if someone is telling you about some autobiography. A few nights later, he felt somewhat dissatisfied about something, I mean is he supposed to be a writer or is something bothering him in his life? The story takes a quiet turn, from having a normal old man turn into another serial killer working alongside someone named Rainer who just helped him catch the guy who ran over and robbed Johnathan’s money, just to beat him up. So he became some sort of hitman just to kill some of his enemies while he’s being smashed at a bar with a bunch of weirdos. But either way, the whole story is like having Johnathan a double life of being a writer during the day and a killer at night with so much thriller coming from this story where the whole foreign city is a kill-of-be-killed world if a man can’t defend himself, then he deserves to fall in the hands of a criminal. And the night itself is actually a warzone to Johnathan, and there’s no escape from his own destiny.
No matter how much I get to read this, this story is another Jekyll and Hyde story where a man is suddenly trying to find himself. However, his friend showed him one of the shadiest things in the city at night where this world has no rules or limits. The main character may be edgy, but he’s trying his best to live his life as a writer. I haven’t talked about Mr. Sean’s art, so according to his bio, he started drawing comics at the age of 15 and drew professionally for major publishers such as Marvel and DC Comics, however as soon as I looked at his art, his art style as I said from the Kill or be Killed review, it’s actually realistic, and you know what intrigues me with his art, it’s how you make something that relates in real life just by looking at every character’s expressions. I just turn some of the pages of the comic and somehow one of the characters’ expressions looked kind of silly because they looked like monkeys when they make their funny faces, I guess you could say that human evolution has evolved very silly.
The action scenes where Johnathan and Rainer beat up some people and went on a car chase are really satisfying, and you know what got me so hooked on their comic creation? It’s how every story that I went through in the past is more about revenge and committing a crime by killing anyone in sight. However, it also shows something dark in the story, because what I went through in this comic is that the main character goes on a foreign country just to get wasted and create another personality inside of him. It’s obvious that the main character is having some problems that something has died inside of him and becomes a dangerous hitman. And the backgrounds and the coloring of the whole city of Europe are so very beautiful to see and, seeing the colors around the comic is so satisfying. No matter how much I’m collecting these kinds of comics made by the two comic creator duo, reading and seeing the art of every comic that they made left me speechless, because I love reading some of the darkest stories that ever existed. So Night Fever, it’s an amazing graphic novel, if you rather want to spend the night, finding something to read, then this comic is for you.
Newsdesk