The Nightly News by Jonathan Hickman - Essay Example

The Nightly News by Jonathan Hickman The nightly news was Jonathan Hickman’s first comic art. The book promises more than it can deliver and is not ballsy as it looks, but shows an impressive talent trying something that is mostly succeeding. The design of Jonathan Hickman is strong on the comic that insignificant deficiency in the theme can be glossed over easily. Jonathan’s art is a surprising debut in comic, and it is easy to realize why Hickman was snapped by marvel after the series came out. The paper therefore, analyses the messages and themes in the book. Hickman used this medium to address issues to send a message. The Nightly News plot is simplistic: organization of terrorist termed as the First Church of the Brotherhood of the Voice, began killing journalists. These terrorist organizations were rated as heroes of the story. According to the group members, the government and the media are controlled by the wealthy members of the society, who used outlets of the media to render them docile by indoctrinating their populace. Jonathan Hickman gives the viewers the Hand of the Voice, called John Guyton, who shoots protesters protesting outside world Banks meeting (Hickman 45). His motive was to draw the media’s attention, and then he started shooting the reports. The Brotherhood had no faith in bystanders who were regarded innocent; they believed everyone is complicit. The characters of the book did not matter because Hickman art was polemic, so he incorporated their type of slots into their roles. The book’s focus was not on characterization; therefore fewer worries were made on characters. Jonathan Hickman used flashbacks that showed the reader some important information. The reader sees the recruitment of John Guyton to the organization. Recruitment was undertaken by Alexander Johns (Hickman 65). Recruitment only favored those with disrepair lives; they needed to be angry and desperate to undertake wishes of the “voice”. We see Guyton undergoing training, and then he kills David Allen Kite a television journalist. This was his first assignment after training. The book revolves around Guyton and Jones who had different ambitions. At the end, the two threads meet and hook up. Jonathan Hickman introduced James Andrews who was a disgraced reporter to the group and officially took under Guyton’s wing. This became a hurdle when the Voice kidnaps a friend to Andrew and orders Andrew to kill him. This became very difficult for Andrew to abide. In the meantime, media heads conglomeration lobbied the senator to stop the killing. None of the characters were deep in the book, despite the lack of deep characterization the plot of the book moved swiftly. The book showed aspects of savage satire than a narrative that is well driven. The media and Brotherhood were satirized by Jonathan Hickman. Brotherhood cult does the same thing it did to its member much of what Jonathan Hickman accuse the media (Hickman 42). Although Jones and Guyton claimed to have freedom, due to Brotherhood lifting the veil from their faces regarding the influence of the media, they did not substitute indoctrination. Dr. Thaler the psychiatrist revealed the situation of Guyton; fear creation, environment control, old belief suppression, belief system, and logic closed system. The hallmarks characterized the Brotherhood, and the hallmark characterized the cult. After the psychiatrist attention to Guyton, we realize pretense in Guyton because it sounded persuasive to Voice; repeated Voice bidding. Guyton facing his death with eyes open does not signify he was not brainwashed (Hickman 43). The subversive of the book is not on media killings, but how Jonathan Hickman made it outright that Brotherhood can only achieve their mission through structures of hierarchy similar to those they rebelled against. The idea behind Brotherhood was to kill members of the media out of boredom. Brotherhood lack of agenda might not be an issue if they committed themselves in spreading mayhem for their own sake, but Jonathan Hickman fails to imply that. The theme is driven by a single person desire to overcome suicidal ennui. That part made the book be a wonderful comic because its bone is cynical and the author implies that other than structure of power insignificance, tearing it down do not matter, as well. The goal of the Brotherhood was achieved, but the author maintained it to be secondary. The book is a temper tantrum that is why the author’s critique is devastating because it is clear in its rage. The author criticizes the media, despite the same implication to the Brotherhood. Jonathan Hickman hates Dan Rather personally. Dan Rather is portrayed to be very harsh in the comic. The stem of his rage is shown by James Andrew. Andrew is recruited into Brotherhood and eventually the Voice presents him Warner Rodger tied in a warehouse. Warner Rodgers is the man who ruined the career of James Andrew. To join the cult truly, Andrew was required to shoot Warner Rodgers. This abides the acts of Brotherhood whereby some of the cult’s recruits were individuals who did things wrong but did not deserve the in-depth scrutiny they got (Hickman 98). Eventually, Jonathan Hickman revealed that Rodgers and Andrew schemed a plot for Rodgers to expose Andrews’s incompetency in reporting and ruin his career, which would disgrace Andrew and seek recruitment in Brotherhood. Rodgers killing was not personal he only wanted to get Brotherhood’s story. This was cynical and horribly calculated move which did not work- because Guyton was aware of Andrew’s plan. From the comic, it is realized that what motivates the media their ratings and stories. The Brotherhood members do not betray their fellow members. This showed how better they are compared to the reporters. Subsequently, satire is seen in the design of the comic portrayed as the marvelous visual treat. Jonathan Hickman used graphs and diagrams to pass across information. Although using diagrams and graphs is satirical, readers always finds this interesting compared to context. After each and every design he wrote disclaimers. Jonathan Hickman used words such as read below, and continues reading. The use of disclaimers makes him sound self-depreciating and indicts the reader to be part f the problem. Jonathan Hickman used photo referencing wisely. He did not plop photos to narrations; he filtered them to some extent in order to fit in the entire scene. The authors eschewed traditional panels, by making pages that are punctuated by holistic picture and descriptive tags that are interesting (Hickman 102). The author used colors and shadows to hide referencing of the photos and make them included in wholes. Hickman switched schemes of color from sepia tone for current and flashbacks used blue. This change in color guided the reader. Additionally, the circles guided the eye and for decoration which made reference of photos less noticeable. Pages design made the comic visually fascinating. It masked polemical features of the book, which sounded tedious. The author switched things up by adding some violence, dropping informational graphic, and veered off. This kept the book fresh. Reference Hickman, Jonathan. The nightly news. Anniversary ed. Berkeley, Calif.: Image ;, 2011. Print. Read More