A new spin on media’s role in society
This November, Image Comics debuts THE NIGHTLY NEWS, a politically- and socially-aware comic book that is sure to raise eyebrows from the comics world.
Already being compared to the comics work of indie legend Brian Wood, THE NIGHTLY NEWS is the debut book for creator Jonathan Hickman, who handles all the writing, art, lettering and coloring himself.
“It’s true,” laughs Hickman. “I wrote it, then drew it, colored it, lettered it, rewrote it, and then redrew it. My wife said if I didn’t stop, she was leaving, so I corrected the typos (that’s code for rewrote it again) and stopped.”
THE NIGHTLY NEWS finds John Guyton broke, divorced and living in the streets of New York City one day, and at war with the corporate news media the next. All because he gets recruited to join the Cult of the VOICE.
“It’s a story about revenge,” explains creator Jonathan Hickman. “Not long ago, I found myself wondering what happens to the people who get their lives taken apart in the scandal of the week fashion that these mainstream and cable news outfits employ to boosratings and revenues. After doing the research, seeing how some of these people’s lives have been ruined, I was surprised there hasn’t been any real reciprocity. This is that story. Like all revenge stories, at some point the question of ‘Is it worth it?’ gets asked and the answer will definitely surprise a lot of people.”
The book features a completely different aesthetic than most any comic book shelves – aside from it’s design, almost the entire book is comprised of double-page spreads.
“It looks really cool,” says Hickman. “Art style is obviously very important to any comic, but with THE NIGHTLY NEWS I really wanted to bridge the gap between traditional comic art and graphic design. Plenty of books recently have tried to do this, I think this might be the first one to get it right.”
THE NIGHTLY NEWS #1 (SEP061787) is a six-issue full-color miniseries available for advance orders in the September Previews (on sale now) and the first issue hits stores November 1 and retails for $2.99.
Image Comics is a comics and graphic novels publisher formed in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Since that time, Image has gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. There are currently four partners in Image Comics (Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino), and Image is currently divided into four major houses (Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline and Image Central). Image comics and graphic novels cover nearly every genre, sub-genre and style imaginable, offering science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. Visit www.imagecomics.com for more information.
