By Night is published by Boom comics. It is written by John Allison, Illustrated by Christine larsen and lettered Jim Campbell.
The story starts off by showing us a woman working in a lab. A nearby voice is narrating her activities. The woman is Jane Langstaff. Jane’s co-worker Barney is the narrator. From his narration we learn that Jane was once passionate about film. She used to aspire to have a film of hers shown at Sundance. But, now she works at a lab instead.
It’s obvious that Jane isn’t passionate about her job, but she’s happy to have a job. I think that’s a solid case for most people today. Well, it’s their lunch break and Jane decides to hop out to grab food. On her way out she runs into a familiar face, Heather. Turns out that Heather and Jane haven’t spoken since Heather went off to college. Also Jane seems pretty uncomfortable seeing her.
After some awkward conversation Jane decides to meet Heather after work for dinner. Somehow Heather talks Jane into going to a bar since they’re legal drinking age now. Jane is very hesitant but goes along for the ride anyway. When they arrive at the bar there are some familiar faces. Heather’s dad.
Here we find out that Heather’s dad has been a security guard for 30 years. And, sadly that he’s just lost his job. Everyone lost their job because they were being paid from a trust fund. As if that’s not peculiar enough we also find out that Chet Charles built the town of Spectrum and mysteriously vanished into thin air one day. As soon as Heather hears that there are no more guards at Charleswood Estate she insists they pay it a visit for some urban exploration.
Jane doesn’t seem interested in this idea at all. Well, not until Heather tells her they could film the inside of the estate before teenagers go in and ruin the place. Jane yet again agrees, but she seems to be regretful immediately. Once they arrive inside we find out that Chet went off on a “Fact-Finding Mission” to strengthen his company, but never came back. So Jane’s video has now turned into a documentary.
The girls dive in head-first trying to figure out what happened to Chet. And, it’s not long before things get weird. I’m talking full on science-fiction weird. That’s really all I can say without ruining too much.
I love this comic so far. The characters are so super relatable. By Night did a great job of conveying the thirst that I think deep down everyone has for adventure and mystery. I know sometimes I personally feel stuck in my day job. I could definitely see that Jane felt that way. And, John Allison did a great job of setting up Heather and Jane’s background story to this point. The ending left me intrigued to learn more about Chet’s disappearance.
Rating: 8/10
