By: Martin Tucker
What happens when you take the politically charged frustration of Sidney Lumet’s “Network” and actually do something about it? “The Nightly News” happens. The classic, “Lie Told in Six Parts”, by Jonathan Hickman is a landmark graphic novel that pessimistically examines a much-hated institution, the media.
“The Nightly News” ran from 2006 to 2007, culminating in a final compilation edition. From the start, it’s clear that Hickman has done his research, as his source page boasts 21 sources including “Hard News” by Seth Mnookin, “Necessary Illusions “ by Noam Chomsky and “Psychiatric Drugging of Children for Behavioral Control” by Peter Breggin, M.D.
The six issue miniseries is, at its heart, a story about vengeance. John Guyton, the protagonist, is a man caught up in the endless character assassination that many media outlets rack their ratings upon. He is recruited by a cult of equally destroyed people and sent on a crusade to end the media through brutal mass murdering, guerilla warfare and acts of terrorism.
To say this Eisner Award-winning comic is violent would be a vast understatement. The only reason it is digestible to most non-conspiracy theorists is the gorgeous union of graphic design and comic art. The gritty, unpolished line art style seems to warn the reader that this comic isn’t for the faint of heart.
One of the more interesting parts of the series is informational diagrams inserted into every chapter that touches on real life statistics such as globalization, New York Times Editor’s excerpts, and survey of the “hottest news babes.” Hickman even includes an equation to determine if your education was “worth it,” by adding four times 12, minus your number of years in higher education to your necessary diploma, your number of lifetime relationships, your environmental maturity and dividing all of them by your school debt added to your job unhappiness to the second power.
His satirical dark sense of humor has something for everyone, as the “nightly news” should. It is unclear exactly what Jonathan Hickman believes and what he is adding to the story, but by the end of the graphic novel you will be drenched in the book’s propaganda.
The collected edition includes one of the most rewarding things a comic writer notes. Hickman goes into detail on almost every page in the graphic novel about his decisions, his beliefs, his obscure references and even his faults in creating “The Nightly News”. Page numbers that connect to the page numbers in the book precedes the small notes. The interesting part is that the page numbers are almost impossible to find in the book because Hickman places them in small fonts and moves them around each page so it’s almost a treasure hunt.
“The Nightly News” is the classic achievement for Jonathan Hickman who has come to be respected as one of the most unique comic writers in the comic book industry. “The Losers” writer Andy Diggle called it,” “Network” meets “Fight Club”. Hickman pitched it as,” “Network” meets “Reservoir Dogs”. Either way, it’s immensely entertaining and a must-have for any journalism major or conspiracy theorist who becomes angry at an article grade and wants to explore the darker side of the media.
