This is sort of a cheater week for me and my weekly Small Press Spotlight series. While every title I’ve highlighted so far has been from a fairly small press company, this week I am taking a look at Top Cow’s Midnight Nation. This title was released under their Joe’s Comics imprint in 2000 to 2002 and was written by J. Michael Straczynski and illustrated by Gary Frank.
While it is true Top Cow isn’t a true small press publisher as they are a studio of Image Comics, I’ve wanted to highlight this book for a while and Top Cow has proven themselves to be a nimble publisher of unique titles. Just like all of my favorite small press companies. Read more about this title after the jump.
Midnight Nation is a title that leaps genre to genre with the greatest of ease. In its 12 issues, JMS’ managed to craft a successful detective story, a supernatural adventure, a spiritual journey, a piece of romantic fiction, a tense drama, and an action comic. At its core, it’s about LAPD officer David Grey (yes, like the singer). When Grey witnesses a brutal murder, he searches for answers as to who did it and why they would do it. As he gets closer and closer to the truth, the murderers attack and hospitalize him. When he awakens he finds that no one can see or touch him and that his grasp on the world is quickly fading.
That is where Laurel comes in. Laurel is the one person whom David can see and touch, and she claims that he has fallen between the cracks of the real world into the place all abandoned and forgotten things go. He has lost his soul and they will need to travel (by foot) to New York City to reacquire it.
While this is obviously quite the fantastical premise and one that frequently draws from religious writings, JMS is such an exceptional premise that the story never feels anything but grounded in realism. Grey is our tether to this world, and he himself is incredulous about the prospect. JMS’ gift of creating three dimensional and balanced characters allow this story to achieve the proper weight without ever losing you as a reader even for a second.
As with any good tale, the power does not reside in the outcome but in the journey that is contained within it. JMS’ details their journey in a very episodic fashion. He immerses us in this shadow world of reality and gives us no one to hold onto but Grey and his guide Laurel. Their burgeoning relationship is the foundation of the story and one that develops very organically throughout.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the phenomenal pencil work by Gary Frank throughout. As you all likely know (and if you don’t, Gil could likely tell you a thing or two) Frank is one of the most consistent and quality pencilers in the industry. While his style really has never changed and he makes his Superman look EXACTLY like Christopher Reeve (regardless of what age he is, as we learned in Superman: Secret Origin), the guy can straight up draw and never ceases to do so well. This title is a bit different from his other works in that it features exactly zero superheroes, but he unsurprisingly handled it with every bit of style and panache he would anything else.
This is one of the most unheralded gems of the past decade. While I must admit that I have not read it in a few years, myself and friends have enjoyed this story on multiple occasions. It’s definitely a title that could (and perhaps should) discover an audience in trade, yet that day has not come yet.
Give it a try now – Amazon has a trade featuring all twelve issues and the Wizard 1/2 edition for just $18.99. That’s an absolutely awesome deal.
