MIDNIGHT NATION 6 PAGE 16 BY GARY FRANK & JONATHAN SIBAL

Another page from this great limited series I’ve had for a very long time that goes back to my early years of collecting. I picked it off ebay from Sterlingclass, Gary's art rep.

Midnight Nation was a great mini-series from the fertile mind of J. Michael Straczynski and like MANY of his works, a sequel was announced but never materialized (but at least he finished that first volume ^^).

Hot on the heels of his Hulk run, Gary Frank was already a very good artist and storyteller, commanding to be followed up on any project sight unseen, who has since evolved into being one of the very best of his generation (check Geiger for a great series with insanely good art).

While not as creepy as the previous page I posted a few years ago, this one certainly also qualifies.

As the two heroes enter the derelict building in panel one, the second shows us their baffled reaction as thy enter it to discover…adversity…

Because to go where they need to go, they will need to go to the other side of…THAT.

That half splash for of evil creatures if super creepy and daunting. The expert way that Gary framed that pure mass of evil from the shadows to the stairs is fantastic. It conveys a sense of a situation that is now impossible to escape and underlines that there are many such creatures up those stairs to go through. Those triangular lines indicate the direction the heroes need to go through and also box them in within the scene. The threat even begins on the floor as two of them emerge from the shadow under said stairs. This is a zombie territory nightmare.

Just brilliant art and storytelling that generate such an immediate strong emotion from the reader.