NIGHT #1 by Sarah Haslett
Classic horror meets gangland USA in this new indy comic that holds a lot of promise.
The story starts off in New York City where gang wars rule the night. But tonight the cops find a grisly murder scene. There are body pieces all over, but no bullet or knife wounds. An FBI agent named Sabrina Voght shows up. She’s been traveling all over the country following murder cases just like this one. The murderer turns out to be a werewolf, but there’s more to him than meets the eye.
The werewolf, David Skinner, looks quite apathetic in his human form. He looks like he just wants to be left alone, but he’s afflicted with this curse that, obviously, won’t leave him alone and just attracts trouble. He’s got no loyalties to anyone and doesn’t even stick around to help out the gang that took him in. This makes me a little sad because the other character that interested me was Billy, this little boy that the gang was raising.
Skinner and Billy are the strongest and most developed characters in this first issue. Some of the gang members and the Police Chief have personality, but limited page time prevented me from getting a good sense of them. As for the FBI agent Sabrina Voght, all I can say is that she looks to also be hiding a secret and only time will tell if she’s a good guy. But something tells me that this world doesn’t have clear-cut good guys and bad guys, which goes a lot towards the realism of the story.
Along with the premise and characters being pretty solid, each character looks distinctly different. No two characters look alike and it’s really easy to read the emotions on people’s faces. That being said, the rest of the artwork has a ways to go. I’m no art expert, but I can tell when something doesn’t look right. Too often people look like they’re posing. Sometimes the proportions or perspectives don’t quite seem right. But it’s not always bad. There are definitely some good shots, even some perfect moments. The closer the shots, the better the art. Like a lot of other comics just starting out, I’m sure the art will improve. With some feedback and pointers, this comic will get better.
The only other complaint I had was the flow of text bubbles. It was sometimes hard to tell which bubble to read next. There was even one moment where I didn’t know which panel to look at next. Again, these are issues that will be fixed as more work is done. I’m looking forward to the next issue and seeing how the encounter with the werewolf and the FBI agent plays out.
Published By: Jester Press
Writer: Troy Hasbrouck
Artist: Buddy Prince
Reviewed by: Sarah Haslett
Sarah Haslett
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[Known as Silva Shado on many boards, Sarah is most frequently found at HeroRealm.com and MightyMiniCon.com. She is a reviewer, moderator and columnist for both sites. At MightyMiniCon, her column "Under the Radar" looks at those comics that go unnoticed by the majority of comic book readers. At HeroRealm, her column "Independent Forecast," co-written with Juan Gamez, looks at the non-spandex titles in the current Previews. Most recently, she started doing web comic reviews for ComicWorldNews.com. Check them out around the 15th and 30th of every month.
My first web comic review is up at ComicWorldNews.com. Read all about the Gods of Arr-Kelaan at http://cwn.comicraft.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?column=reviews&page=124
