Meet Elvis, Chihuahua, and More in Exclusive Character Designs from New Comic Book Series NIGHT PEOPLE, Debuting This March from Oni Press!

2024/02/06 18:46:32 +00:00 | Derek Anderson

"For some of us, it's always midnight." Based on the book of the same name by renowned author Barry Gifford (Wild At Heart), Night People will debut the first of its four issues this March as one of the exciting new monthly comic book series from Oni Press, and we have a look at exclusive character designs as a special treat for Daily Dead readers!

Adapted by writer Chris Condon, Night People features illustrations by an all-star lineup of artists, including Brian Level, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Artyom Topilin, and Marco Finnegan, and below you can check out exclusive character designs of Elvis, Chihuahua, Sabine, and other eclectic characters from the macabre world of Night People.

We also have a look at the amazing cover artwork by J.H. Williams III, Joëlle Jones, Jacob Phillips, and Brian Level, as well as preview pages from the first issue of Night People, hitting shelves on March 6th from Oni Press!

Press Release: FOR SOME OF US, IT’S ALWAYS MIDNIGHT. Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking graphic fiction, is proud to present the much-anticipated first look at NIGHT PEOPLE #1 (of 4) – the first issue of the violent and volatile new series from literary icon Barry Gifford, the internationally renowned creator of Wild At Heart and co-writer of David Lynch's neo-noir masterpiece Lost Highway.

Adapted from Gifford’s acclaimed novel by breakout writer Chris Condon (That Texas Blood, The Enfield Gang Massacre) with 30 pages of story in each deluxe, ad-free issue, NIGHT PEOPLE is a pulsating roadmap of the American subconscious that follows an uneasy company of wanted criminals, cartel killers, and lost souls as illustrated by a chorus of visually provocative artistic talents – Brian Level (Poison Ivy, Lazarus), Eisner Award winner Alexandre Tefenkgi (The Good Asian, Once Upon A Time at the End of the World), Artyom Topilin (I Hate This Place), and Marco Finnegan (Crossroad Blues) – through four interlocking tales punctuated by lipstick, sweat, and blood.

“Night People is beyond noir, a parable that embodies both a revision of the past and riddle for the present, informed by the Church on the One Hand and the Church on the Other Hand that portends a future wherein whomever is left on the planet are cast forth on an even more mysterious and perilous voyage on a ghost ship sailing into the Sea of Red,” said Gifford. “As evidenced by this powerful graphic representation of my novel, the quest for a safe harbor is neverending.”

“Each issue is unique in terms of story, so it makes sense to have each issue have a different, unique artistic approach,” said Condon. “I'm so thrilled to see the artistic powerhouses Oni Press has brought onboard to tackle this adaptation with me. The way Barry's book works is that you never know what turns it will take or what characters you'll be following in any particular chapter. We've utilized that approach in this adaptation, and I think we're crafting something that should be exciting for readers and will have them coming back issue after issue to see where this wild story is going to go next.”

In our first tale of desperation, fanaticism, and murder, as told by Gifford, Condon, and Level, two ex-convicts—a pair of inseparable lovers named Big Betty Stalcup and Miss Cutie Early—are out on parole using their newfound freedom to purify the world of men’s evil influence . . . and leave a trail of mutilated bodies in their wake. As the psychotic dimensions of their star-crossed romance—and the twisting paths that first led them to their fateful meeting at the Fort Sumatra Detention Center for Wayward Women—come into full view, their experiment in righteousness culminates in the kidnapping of Rollo Lamar, a kindly attorney whom Betty and Cutie abduct just to see if they can reeducate at least one man on the planet before the demise of civilization.

Barry Gifford's novels have been translated into 30 languages, and he has been the recipient of awards from PEN, the American Library Association, the Writers Guild of America, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, BAFTA, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Premio Brancati in Italy, among others. David Lynch's film Wild at Heart was based on Gifford's novel (Grove, 1990), and he co-wrote the films Lost Highway (1997) with director David Lynch and City of Ghosts (2003) with director Matt Dillon. His books include The Phantom Father (Harcourt Brace & Company, 1997), named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Wyoming (Arcade, 2000), named a Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year, Sailor and Lula: The Complete Novels (Seven Stories Press, 2010), Roy’s World: Stories 1973-2020 (Seven Stories Press/Penguin Random House, 2020), The Boy Who Ran Away to Sea (Seven Stories Press/Penguin Random House, 2022), and Ghost Years (Seven Stories Press/Penguin Random House, 2024). Mr. Gifford's writings have appeared in Punch, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Sport, the New York Times, The New Yorker, and many other publications. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Featuring a stunning line-up for covers from a murderer's row of visionary talents – including J.H. Williams III (Sandman: Overture, Promethea), Joëlle Jones (Wonder Girl, Lady Killer), Jacob Phillips (That Texas Blood, Newburn), and premiere artist Brian Level (Poison Ivy, Lazarus) – travel down the interstate of dark, elusive dreams from New Orleans to Egypt City, Florida, and back again when NIGHT PEOPLE #1 debuts in comic shops everywhere on March 6, 2024.

Praise for Barry Gifford’s NIGHT PEOPLE

“Gifford’s night people are pure American…. Pure in their madness... [and] in their evil.”—NPR

“A lively and lunatic underworld of mobsters, motor-mouthed oddballs, profound innocents, and other desperadoes.”—VICE

“William Faulkner by way of B-movie film noir, porn paperbacks, and Sun Records rockabilly..." – Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude

"Unsettling... The kinds of people who always seem to show up at night because they carry their own private night with them." – Los Angeles Times

"[A] somehow contemporary America that is threaded with equal parts grit and grace..." – LA Review of Books

NIGHT PEOPLE #1

Written by BARRY GIFFORD & CHRIS CONDON

Art by BRIAN LEVEL

Cover A by J.H. WILLIAMS III

Cover B by JOËLLE JONES

Cover C by JACOB PHILLIPS

Cover D by BRIAN LEVEL

Full Art Variant (1:20) by JOËLLE JONES

B&W Variant (1:30) by J.H. WILLIAMS III

$4.99 | 32 PGS. | NO ADS | MATURE READERS ONLY | ON SALE MARCH 6, 2024

For more updates on Oni Press, visit them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

About Oni Press

Founded in 1997, Oni Press has a 25-year history as one of the industry’s most respected and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comic books and graphic novels with titles including Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim, K. O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt's The Sixth Gun, Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, Ezra Claytan Daniels' Upgrade Soul, Brenna Thummler’s Sheets trilogy, and many hundreds more. In 2019, Oni Press merged with Lion Forge Comics – the Eisner Award-winning independent comic book publisher founded by Academy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur David Steward II – to create one of the largest, independent libraries of comics content anywhere in media. The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group now exists as a publishing subsidiary of Steward’s diversified global media company, Polarity.

The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group publishes more than 60 original and licensed graphic novels annually, in addition to an extensive list of periodical comics.