By Night
By John Allison and Christine Larsen
Boom! Box, 2019
By Night is a series of comic books written by John Allison, illustrated by Christine Larsen, and colored by Sarah Stern. The story is set in the same general universe as Allison's Scary Go Round / Bad Machinery / Giant Days, and while Larson is best known for her work on Adventure Time, she does a fair job of maintaining consistency with Allison's style.
While the full By Night series consists of 12 comic books -- later collected in three graphic novels -- I have only read the first collection, consisting of issues 1-4, and so this review will be somewhat limited.
The adventure follows Jane, a chemistry major who would rather shoot documentaries, and Heather, a ne'er-do-well with no job or clear goals. Jane and Heather had once been friends, but drifted apart; in an attempt to mend fences, Heather invites Jane to come along on an illegal urban exploration jaunt through an abandoned industrial complex. Against her better judgement Jane joins her, and they discover a secret portal to another dimension in a broom closet.
As if that wasn't enough, this is a very weird alternate universe. Their first contact is a small green man called Gardt, who has an animated skeleton living part-time inside his body. Gardt is addicted to 80s TV, and can be bribed with thrift shop kitsch to let them get into all kinds of trouble, so they roll with it. Soon they are exploring vampire caves, escaping from grumpy werewolves, and making one heck of a documentary.
However, it starts to become clear that there is more to this world than weird, wacky, and disgusting creatures, and there may in fact be a plot against human interlopers. There are definitely clues to the mysterious disappearance of the local industrialist millionaire all those years ago. And that's the end of volume one. Sorry; I'll update if and when I get ahold of the next volume.
This series appears to be an attempt to get back to some of the supernatural adventures that marked Allison's earlier work, along with the accompanying simpler, more comic-like artwork. It doesn't fail, exactly, but it's not Allison's artwork, it doesn't have the same level of wit, and it does not have the complex story-line and cast of thousands that usually accompanies an Allison epic growing out of control -- and it does appear that this series will not grow out of control, being, at this time, officially over at issue 12. It is still a fun supernatural adventure, and one one worth checking out if you get the chance.