It’s pretty incredible how long it took me to appreciate graphic novels. For many years I simply had disregarded them, to be honest, i don’t even know why. I had assumed they all came as small comics so I will chuck it up to laziness and youthful lack of means. The first graphic novel I sorta read was 100 Bullets Issue #1, around 6 years ago, maybe more. The issue was released online as a promotion for the rest of the series. I thought it was pretty damn good! and then quickly got distracted by other interests…

Over time comics were always there, friends would say “oh have you read this comic” and many people I knew/know would say they were into comics, whatever that means. And of course when the watchmen movie came out it escalated to a frenzy and it was impossible to walk to the grocery store without seeing that yellow smiley face.

Finally this past year I decided to give in. I read watchmen. I felt I had to pay my dues. For the record I enjoyed tremendously. The story is fantastic, and it is in fact much better than the movie. The art I wasn’t particularly impressed by. It has that classic “drawn” look. Like the art lacks polish or the story was put before the art and printing. Which is fine, I would still recommend it to anyone. After the obligatory watchmen I did an inordinate amount of research and compiled a list of novels that I think I would like, but one stuck out on that list. The Nightly News by Jonathan Hickman.

Hickman wrote, lettered, drew, colored, and inked this short run comic. It originally ran 6 issues and is now available as a trade paperback.

You can immediately tell that this comic was the project Hickman wanted to work on all his life.

The story is passable, in my opinion Hickman isn’t the best writer, but lets move on because if you wanted good story you would read a book. (jk)

This graphic novel is visually stunning. Each page looks like a poster, and in fact could actually be a poster. The whole book is printed on glossy paper and the coloring is sharp.

A lot of disciplines of graphic design carry over exactly into graphic novels. For example, focusing the readers vision. Hickman completely ditches the panel approach for the most part. You would imagine that it would be hard to keep the readers eyes following the page in order, but it’s handled expertly, and the reader is never lost trying to read the page.

The book is also riddled with simple vector style graphics and patterns. This is so reminiscent of web design that sometimes I would look at the pages and think, “hmm that pattern would make a good background.” There is also good use of layering and elements are reused in different opacities it gives the book an overall grunge feel, all while straddling the line of being too visually busy. To top it all off, Hickman actually has pages that are infographics.

Another aspect I was greatly impressed by is Hickman’s attention to detail. It is often the very little things that take a design from good to great. There are tasteful little things all over the book: Page numbers randomly positioned on the page, sarcastic disclaimers that begin each chapter, or little notes directed at the reader.

Go get it, it’s a visually stunning read. I dare any design professional to read this comic and not be impressed.

- ECF