By Zack Quaintance — The past month has been rough. I think any human occupying this odd world we’ve found ourselves stuck in would agree. The coronavirus pandemic has, in a word, been awful, owing to fears and threats that range from health to economics. Yesterday, however, I found myself blissfully unaware of the fear and threats for the better part of an hour. For that, I can thank Friday.

Friday is a new digital ongoing comic from writer Ed Brubaker (Criminal, The Fade Out) and artist Marcos Martin (Barrier, Private Eye), with colors by Munsta Vicente. It’s available to purchase via Panel Syndicate, with that platform’s pay-what-you-like system. The book got a surprise release yesterday like a new Beyonce album, and it could not have come at a better time. In addition to the larger issues mentioned above, an effect of the coronavirus has also been that the comic book industry is unable to operate, meaning the regular flow of new Wednesday releases that has been present throughout my entire life (and, indeed, probably everyone who is reading this as well) has stopped. We are in a new comic drought, and then along comes this book with this creative team...like rain on your wedding day (wait…). 

So, Brubaker is working with Martin for the first time. This is good. We have a new digital comic from a cool platform. This is also good. But what of this comic itself, what’s it about, and how is it? In a word, it is good, damn good. In fact, Friday is the best debut issue of any comic I’ve read this year. 

Brubaker himself neatly sums up the concept of this book (he’s a pro, afterall) in the backmatter. It’s “...something that felt gothic but grounded, like a post-YA book, where the kids that solved mysteries and confronted ghosts and monsters also grew up and had the same problems we all do, the same struggles, and bad habits.”

It’s a great concept, and it’s one that gives both creators a chance to make effective and steady use of their ample talents. Brubaker feels obviously free with his work here, unshackled (perhaps) from the typical, noir-influenced crime comics he continues to write at a pace that puts him among the best and most prolific to ever work within that genre...in any medium. In this comic, his excellent sensibilities for character work and pacing are very much present, but the different motif and genre influence enables him to take a more literary approach to his captioning. There are so many poetic flourishes in the script that sound like they’ve been cribbed from an all-time great novel, writing that begged to be re-read even on a first time through. 

Martin and Vicente, meanwhile, are probably my single favorite creator teaming in all of comics. There’s so much to say about what their storytelling and visuals accomplish in this first issue, that it’s going to be a challenge to narrow it down, quite frankly. The design in this comic is impeccable and illustrative of far more than just looks. The main characters, for example, both visually convey their central concerns. Not to spoil anything, but the titular Friday is a character between two worlds, the YA-esque mystery adventure of her teeny-bopper past, and the more adult world she now inhabits having gone off to college and made friends with boys who call her babe. Her best friend from childhood, Lancelot Jones, and her had a mysterious night before she left for college — and his youthful tact is to avoid talking about it all together. 

To this end, Friday looks a bit awkward, like she’s indeed an adult but isn’t quite comfortable with all that entails yet. She’s bigger than Jones, and Martin’s linework gives her body language during the adventure that makes her look a bit stilted, a bit bored and ready for this to be over so she can talk about what’s transpired between them. Jones, on the other hand, could not look more rapt by the mystery they are trying to solve. The two are also placed in panels in a way where he’s always looking at the action (never at her) and she’s always behind him, being pulled into it perhaps a bit against her will. This is just one example of many in terms of how the visual storytelling is done well in this comic, and it’s one example I think is illustrative of the high level of craft achieved (the design of the town and the time period should also very much be on the list).

Overall: Friday is the best new comic debut all year, powered by an interesting concept that is executed by some of the most powerful storytellers in the industry. We should all be thankful to have work like this during these trying times. 10/10

Friday #1
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Marcos Martin
Colorist: Munsta Vicente
Publisher: Panel Syndicate
Price: Pay-what-you-want.
Friday Fitzhugh spent her childhood solving crimes and digging up occult secrets with her best friend Lancelot Jones, the smartest boy in the world. But that was the past, now she's in college, starting a new life on her own. Except when Friday comes home for the holidays, she's immediately pulled back into Lance's orbit and finds that something very strange and dangerous is happening in their little New England town...This is literally the Christmas vacation from Hell and neither of them may survive to see the New Year.
Release Date: April 15, 2020

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.