After Dark

After Dark #1-3

by Peter Milligan, Jeff Nentrup, Wesley Snipes

An amoral drifter guides a gang of damaged souls into the dark places of the ruined planet, and the even darker places of their own pasts. They journey this post-apocalyptic terrain in search of a woman who may be the key to saving the world. The real question still looms if the people who still inhabit this world are even worth saving.
After Dark is a story of hidden demons and unleashed devils set in a future that could very well be ours.

Genres: Comics, Science Fiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2011

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.

He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.

His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.

Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).

Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix

Reviews

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertainment can make for some strange bedfellows, hence the case of Radical Publishing.

Flashback to 2008, and as a bushy eyed undergrand transitioning to his masters, I was a nascent comic fan, who was obsessed with the untapped potential of the genre. But rather than experiment with form, I was more interested in exploiting the concept of transmedia and the idea that comics could be used for storyborading and to incubate corporate IP.

Radical Publishing was what I would have done, before I realized to accept the strengths of each medium.

Radical took some half-baked ideas posited by producers, directors and stars--and hired second-tier comic writers and comic artists for high-production value comics. After Dark is written by one of my favorite writers, Peter Milligan--but this is clearly a work-for-hire effort.

The art is "pretty" but not competent in utilizing the strength of the medium. It's storyboards and set design. And it's boring that I have to reread to get the plot.

It was a nice idea, but ultimately a hollow one--and lead to the exploitation of vulnernable Steve Moore (with Hercules) other weak comics such as Rider on the Storn, Hot Wire, and other fairly inane IP (King Arthur but with GUNS! Sexy Aladdin!"

Another failed comic publisher, around the time of Virgin Comics 'noble' effort.

[Lionel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been looking for the final issue of this one for years, litterally. Before that, all I had read was the number 0 (which is the first pages of the issue 1...). The good thing, the excellent thing about all the comics from Radical is the art. That is the main focus of this publisher.... and sadly sometimes, the script is not at the same level.

This is not the case here, even though there is some defaults. But I will choose to think that there was supposed to be a sequel and then, we could have explore more of this planet, more of all the creatures, see more of the Bedouins and what it means.... Also I liked this idea of the religion which goes real bad.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was fantastic but the story was too disjointed to be comprehensible in any meaningful way. The coolest part about the whole story was the planet they were on and how deadly it can become after dark (hence the name) but there was very little exploration of this idea. Instead, the focus was on a plot and characters that didn't have enough substance and didn't make much sense. Did I mention there is a centuries-year-old mind-reading baby? Cool ideas, poor execution. I really wanted to love this one since the art is so good. It's almost like the art came before the story. If the whole thing wasn't hand-painted so skillfully I probably would've given it a 1 or 2.

[Jesús · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple (just a couple) of interesting ideas that could have been developed much better

[Tyson Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason I doubt we'll see a sequel any time soon.