Jane Langstaff is a technician at a biomedical lab in Spectrum, South Dakota. Lately, she’s been feeling things haven’t panned out for her after college as much as she would have liked. In a turn of fate, she bumps into a somewhat estranged but best friend from high school, Heather Meadows. While in many ways things have changed significantly since they last saw each other, Jane and Heather find themselves into their old hijinks in a small-town night adventure with the aid of some plucked security keys at the Charleswood Estate within no time, although Jane might have some feelings of hesitancy about it. It doesn’t take long before they discover something very mysterious, perhaps even mystical in the midnight of some urban exploration. Welcome to By Night.
By Night: I’m Happy I Found This
I am really into this title. I mean I had a good feeling about it, but I wondered if this would be the one to keep those good feelings. It’s nice getting absolutely happy for some fine comics. In some situations, I am looking at games to flip through panel after panel of illustration and speech bubbles. I’ve been onto some gems though. And that includes this wonderful introduction to the By Night series by author John Allison, illustrator Christine Larsen, and cover book artist Sarah Stern. It holds the right amount of intrigue with fun characters and plenty of hijinks.
One thing you should know, that I maybe should have known, is this series is massive. I’m not going to lie, this is my first introduction, but I can only imagine how far this story goes, the first volume is over 100 pages as it is. That sounds naĆÆve, but I’m just impressed is all. And also humbled, since I do not have enough attention span in the world for all of that. Not because of the comic, but I literally would veer off course eventually. Despite my doubts, it’s a brilliant comic!
Spectrum, South Dakota
This story, centering around the abandoned Charleswood Estate is a compelling story. I didn’t have to overanalyze it much to feel like this was kind of like some comic version of Mr. Burns’ company in The Simpsons. That comparison might have actually helped. You can get pretty light-hearted about reading this book, it’s fun and bouncy from one scene to the next.
If you’ve ever lived in a small town, which I have, you totally understand the daunting boomerang of college education or lack thereof. Jane and Heather are representatives of both. There’s a pretty firm jab about influencers in there too. That is okay because most of us realize that it’s just the way things are. I am grateful about the world in this series too, because it transports the reader outside of current affairs. Although the publication date probably has a lot to do with that too. And actually, some of the situational dialogue was super relevant to the point of me blushing.
Regarding the Charleswood Estate, I’ll lay down the major plot point–speaking of worlds. It involves a hidden machine that basically opens up a portal. I can’t really share much else without telling you about that. Through some turmoil and uncertainty, however, the plot is guided right along with optimistic opportunity seizing of this weird and magical gift. The temporary-ness of this exploration is at the forefront of the story arc too, not just because Jane and Heather trespassed into this discovery, but that it will soon be unreachable because of the possession of the property.
By Night: A Solid Comic
If you’re looking for something that’s fun with a pretty sincere plot, this is great. The creators took a lot of time making something wonderful here and I know that’s why it has been able to continue. And there are absolutely tons of issues, so if you like, there’s plenty of opportunities to explore it more.
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