A mask of pulped comic pages. A $100 note. A quest to find someone whose life could be changed by it, as a ‘heroic act’. The sun descends, and the shadows lengthen
- The Shadow of Night
- Written by Emmet O’Cuana
- Illustrated by Lynore Avery
According to writer Emmet’s introduction, The Shadow of Night is a bit of a walking tour through Sydney, featuring highlights and historical features specific to his adopted city. Fair. As a reader, I went through the story and found an existential deep dive into what we value and why. Honestly, it wasn’t a comic I thought I’d be doing a review for, but once read it’s one that’s kept me thinking past the last page turn.
Based on that simple metric, I’ve gotta call out the win for Emmet O’Cuana & artist Lynore Avery.
Visually, The Shadow of Night presents something a step or two beyond the abstract. While undoubtedly satisfying to the eyes, the masked Paul leads the reader through a stream of consciousness, which is a thing not every artist would be able to capture. Avery manages it in a bizarre mixture of surreal realism, and I have to encourage anyone thinking about diving into this book. Get it, read it, really dig into and chew on every page along the way because there’s a lot to see.
I can’t give much more of a breakdown than this because “it’s about a guy who makes a papier-mache mask out of comic books and stumbles around Sydney, Australia trying to find someone to give 100 pounds AUD to, to satisfy an urge to do a good deed” is just weird. Instead, I’ll leave you with one thought. When you read as many comics as I do, both mainstream and not, and you run across one that sticks in your brain like a song you can’t quite remember all the lyrics to, that’s a book to pay attention to.
This is me, paying attention and encouraging others to do so…
Final Score: 12/13
The Shadow of Night is much more than a slim comic book. As O’Cuana intimates, or is it Chapman (which Chapman?), it’s a palimpsest of shadow and light. Compelling, poetic, and uncanny, in a way that Franz himself might have recognized.
I’ve never been to Australia. I don’t know Camperdown from Potts Point. But thanks to O’Cuana and his masterful collaborator Lynore Avery, I’ve walked these streets. I’ve seen these shadows, heard these echoes, made this resonant journey. And thanks to this magnificent, compressed, knock-out punch of a comic, it’s a journey I’ll take again and again. – Ken Krimstein, Author/Artist (Kenkrimstein.com) Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt, Vivre, Einstein in Kafkaland
