All throughout April, we’re crowdsourcing a coronavirus quarantine comics reading list. Each weekday for a month, we’ll post a new recommendation from someone in the comics industry to help folks get through the isolation. This includes writers, artists, letterers, editors, comics journalists, publicists, and more…all paired with a local shop that’s currently selling the books via mail order.

Today’s pick comes from artist Phillip Sevy…enjoy!

Whenever I have to recommend a comic to someone, I always have to evangelize my favorite comic of all time (and one that is criminally under-read and underrated): Midnight Nation by J. Michael Straczynski and Gary Frank. Published by Top Cow at the turn of the century, it follows LAPD detective David Grey as he literally loses his soul and ends up in the “In-Between” – the place where lost souls and forgotten people live. He’s provided a guide in Laurel, a tragic being forced to spend eternity living and sacrificing for the lost, and he is told he has one year to walk cross-country to New York in order to reclaim his soul. If he doesn’t, he’ll turn into one of the horrors that stalk him on his journey.

Midnight Nation was a 12-issue maxiseries that is collected in one gorgeous volume now. Each issue jumps forward (roughly) a month in David’s journey as he confronts a world of lost people and what decisions he’s made in his life that have left him alone and damaged. Like in life, the book is about the journey as much, if not more than the destination. What starts off as fairly generic and formulaic, quickly transforms into a touching and revelatory series about what it means to be a human and how to value the lives of those around us as well as ourselves. Each issue is structured to tell its own story as the larger narrative progresses. I won’t give you a blow-by-blow of each issue (I don’t want to spoil the moments that make this series a brilliant examination of humanity and compassion), but there are moments that still, to this day, bring tears to my eyes (see, especially, issue 4 – “The Devil You Know”).

Straczynski’s writing has never been better (and be sure to read the afterword at the end of the trade where he talks about how personal the story is to him), and this is the book where Gary Frank demonstrated the beautiful, dynamic, and emotive storytelling skills that turned him into one of the top artists in the comics industry. John Sibal and Jason Gorder’s inks are sharp and gorgeous. Matt Milla’s colors are cinematic as hell. Robin Spehar and Dennis Heisler’s letters are fantastic.

There have been many (and will be until it happens) attempts to turn Midnight Nation into a film/TV show (the most recent announcement was just a few years back), and I don’t doubt that it will someday grace a screen, but treat yourself to a real masterpiece of the medium before that day comes. And if you love it as much as I do, go back and reread it in issue form. The letters column of the original series went from being a “Wow, this is real cool!” letters column, to a deeply personal and painful conversation between readers as they talked about trauma, tragedy, and abuse they suffered and how they came through it all.

There are a LOT of great series out there – no doubt. I could go on and on, listing life-changing comics. But this is one that not enough people have read. And they need to. -Phillip Sevy

Phillip Sevy is on Twitter @phillipsevy and on Instagram @phillipsevycomicart. The trade collection for his recent creator-owned series, Triage, is due out in late May from Dark Horse Comics.

Midnight Nation
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Gary Frank
Inkers: John Sibal and Jason Gorder
Colorist: Matt Milla
Letterers: Robin Spehar and Dennis Heisler
Publisher: Top Cow / Joe’s Comics
Midnight Nation is a thought-provoking story with religious overtones about a police officer in limbo who goes on a cross-country search for his soul but encounters some mighty obstacles along the way. When it first came out in 2000, J. Michael Straczynski's provocative storytelling and the fantastic art of Gary Frank (Action Comics, Squadron Supreme) captivated readers with its mix of action, horror and drama built around a message of hope, loyalty and sacrifice.
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