By J. Keith Haney
Brereton, Dan. Nocturnals: Black Planet. Oni Press (January 5, 1999). USD $49.00. ISBN-13: 978-0966712704.
It is one of the unspoken rules of fantastic fiction that all such fiction must be categorized. This one here is fantasy, that one science fiction, and that guy over there MUST BE horror. You get the picture. Very few works, people, or genres have ever tried combining the genres in such a way that the results are downright impossible to pigeonhole. Lovecraft’s blend of science fiction, horror and fantasy was one of those exceptions, of course. The films Dark City and Brotherhood of the Wolf also fit these categories. You could make a convincing argument that the Silver Age Marvel Comics also did that same sort of mashup of the genres. To this group, I would like to add one more interesting comic creation by writer/artist Dan Brereton: Nocturnals: Black Planet.
The story opens with a jailbreak. Komodo, a human/lizard genetic hybrid, is making his second breakout from the Narn K corporation. As Komodo says, Narn K is “Frankenstein’s assembly line”, its primary stock in trade being robotic soldiers known as ‘Synthetics’ and animal/human hybrids like Komodo. While the Synthetics have little in the way of free will, several Hybrids in Narn K captivity want to accomplish one thing: escape. The search party is headed up by a Mr. Fane, a mysterious Narn K manager who has ties to the city’s mobsters. Komodo’s on the verge of being recaptured when he’s rescued by a walking corpse in a funky hat with a pair of handguns. Its mouth is sewn shut, but it’s got aim that would have made Wyatt Earp envious. The corpse is called ‘The Gunwitch’, personal bodyguard to Dr. Nicodemus ‘Doc’ Horror, one-time scientist/explorer-turned-mob fixer-turned-independent operator. These days, he heads a motley crew full of mostly ex-Narn K hybrids. Oh, did I mention Doc is an alien from a planet that has never seen daylight?
The rest of the plot is a crazy blend of genre elements: a power play-gone-wrong with the Zampa crime family involving legendary Narn K escapee Procyon Cleanhands AKA the Raccoon, Mr. Fane’s alliance with the Crim, a squiddy alien race that looks like Cthulhu with red dye, and how it ties in with Doc abandoning his home planet all those years ago. It’s like Brereton grabbed a complete run of Weird Tales, put it in a speed blender, and filtered out the parts that he found interesting in the final mix. Trying to describe it any further without telling the story directly is flat-out impossible.
The Weird Tales comparison is also apt for Brereton’s fully-painted artwork. The jagged angles of his figures, with plenty of shadows cast by whatever light sources are close by, make them seem like the covers of that fabled mag come to life. Yet, Brereton never lets the pulp look of his art interfere with his visual storytelling. Each panel smoothly flows into the next and, no matter how dark the colours used, you never wonder what’s going on on the page.
What keeps the story grounded is the dialogue. The interplay between the characters is never boring and frequently, the dialogue is witty. One such typical exchange is during a betrayal of the Raccoon by Tony Zampa:
Zampa: What can I say?
Raccoon: (pointing a .45) You can start with the Lord’s Prayer.
Monologues are thankfully rare and there are only two flashbacks in the whole story. Everything you need to know about characters, situations, or what they are feeling is usually going to involve talking to someone else.
There have been several follow-ups in this series: Unhallowed Eve, Gunwitch: Outskirts of Doom, and The Dark Forever. But, much like a film franchise that produces works of increasingly shoddy quality, Black Planet is the first and the best of Nocturnals. If you like good, old-fashioned pulp fiction, take a look.
You can buy Nocturnals: Black Planet on Amazon.com.