There are no more men of conviction. What I desire are men who can be molded. Men who have lost everything they had to live for, Men who have no fear of death or loss of possessions, Men who have watched their wives leave and never come back, Men who can’t afford the distraction of video games, Men who hate themselves as much as they hate other men, Men who have monitored visitation, Men who are beginning to discover the lies they have been told their entire life, Men who no longer love their mommy, Men who no longer fear their daddy, Men who don’t believe in harming animals but eat meat and embrace the hypocrisy, Men who hate men who use the word hypocrisy, Men who hate men that think they are smarter than everyone else, Men who hate designer shoes, Men who hate men who make them read small type, Men who hate women, and one Woman who hates men.

nightlyNEWS
Buy it at your local comic store or Order online now
By: Jonathan Hickman
184 Pages • FC • $16.99
Collecting the critically acclaimed mini-series from Image Comics.

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Quotes from your favorite comic creators:

"A comic created with pure creative rage! A tour de force in graphic design as story and I loved it!"
Brian Michael Bendis

"This is what the future looks like. I have no idea where Jonathan Hickman is taking us, but it's so clear he does."
Brad Meltzer

"Jonathan Hickman's The Nightly News is the industry vanguard ... where the rest of comics will be a decade from now."
Stuart Immonen

"A totally unique thriller"
Brian K Vaughn

"THE NIGHTLY NEWS aims for the head, not the heart.  It's NETWORK meets FIGHT CLUB, and it's the best new comic of the year."
Andy Diggle

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5 page preview:
Download HERE (.PDF 4.7MB)

The Foreword from the collected edition...

Jonathan Hickman has a nasty streak.

I mean, sure, the guy obviously knows design. You can glean that much just from a cursory glance at THE NIGHTLY NEWS, and it’s what made me pick up the book in the first place. In a medium dominated by stale regurgitations of decades-old spandex-wearing corporate trademarks, THE NIGHTLY NEWS leaps out as something visually fresh, contemporary and relevant.

But that’s not enough to keep me reading. After all, novelty gets old fast.

No, it’s not just the snazzy design, nor the intricately woven conspiracy plot, nor the commentary on the nature of the modern corporate media. Sure, that stuff doesn’t hurt. But the real thing that kept me picking up this book issue after issue is that nasty streak.

I mean, not only are this guy’s protagonists a bunch of unredeemed, cold-blooded murderers - they’re all fucking crazy to boot. And I don’t mean that Wow-you’re-so-cool-and-unorthodox-I-wish-I-could-be-just-like-you kind of crazy. I mean that shoot-you-in-the-head-on-live-TV-and-set-myself-on-fire-in-Times-Square kind of crazy.

That, and it’s funny.

The question is, does Hickman actually believe the shit he’s slinging? The trail of infographics sprinkled like breadcrumbs to a rat-trap certainly give the book a sense of authorial veracity. But does that mean the worldview of the story itself should somehow be taken as “true” by association? Is the narrative voice actually the authorial voice? Does Jonathan Hickman condone the wholesale slaughter of members of the news media?

Is this guy fucking crazy?

Hard to say. After all, he does attempt to distance his own personal views from those of his characters. There are those cute little disclaimers at the start of every chapter; plus he subtitles the story “A Lie Told In Six Parts”, telling us up front that this is bullshit, make believe, fiction. In other words, don’t try this at home, kids.

Yeah, right. Like we’re buying that, Hickman.

See, maybe that’s just what he wants you to think. Maybe Hickman really is The Voice, channeling his anger through the only mass medium left that still allows any kind of subversive self-expression - namely, creator-owned comic books.

Maybe he is. Maybe I’m dictating this introduction duct-taped to a chair with a bag over my head. Maybe I can smell gun oil and lighter fluid.

Like I said. Nasty streak.

I’ll be sure to buy Jonathan Hickman’s next book. Honest.

ANDY DIGGLE
LONDON, 2007

THE NIGHTLY NEWS, PAX ROMANA, A RED MASS FOR MARS, TRANSHUMAN. Published by Image Comics, Inc., Office of publication: 1942 University Avenue, Suite 305, Berkeley, California 94704. Copyright © 2006, 2007 Jonathan Hickman. All rights reserved. THE NIGHTLY NEWS, PAX ROMANA, A RED MASS FOR MARS, TRANSHUMAN (including all prominent characters featured herein), its logo and all character likenesses are trademarks of Jonathan Hickman, unless otherwise expressly noted. Image Comics® is a trademark of Image Comics, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of these publications may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means (except for short excerpts for review purposes), without the express written permission of Jonathan Hickman or Image Comics, Inc. All names, characters, events and locales in these publications are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events or places, without satiric intent, is coincidental.