By Night, Vol. 3

By Night #3

by John Allison, Christine Larsen (Illustrator), Sarah Stern (colors)

The third and final volume of 'By Night', from Boom! Box,

Created & Written by John Allison
Illustrated by Christine Martin
Colored by Sarah Stern
Lettered by Jim Campbell

Collects issues 8 to 12

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Young Adult, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Humor

ebook

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

John Allison is the author and artist of the British webcomics Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See other authors with similar names.

Reviews

[Artemy]

A solid end for a solid series. Not John Allison's best (you can't beat Giant Days), but it had a few solid laughs, some lovely art and a cool mystery that got solved in a satisfying, if a bit abrupt way.

[Rod Brown]

The plot finally kicked into gear for the conclusion, but since the main characters didn't pay much attention to it, I found it hard to get caught up in it myself.

Allison writes fun and interesting characters, but he sometimes cannot find anything interesting for them to do but chat. This series is one of his rare whiffs for me. Three strikes and out.

[Coco]

¡La última entrega (aparentemente) de esta colección! Tenía muchas ganas de saber cómo terminaría esta historia y de ver si los misterios quedaban resueltos. Después del cliffhanger del anterior volumen no sabéis lo mucho que quería saber qué había pasado.

En este ejemplar hay más flashback (pues ya los habíamos visto en los anteriores) y están muy bien llevados en lo que respecta a la representación de los personajes. La historia en este final de trilogía tenía, desde mi punto de vista, más acción y tensión. Se me hizo más enganchante que la anterior.

Sin embargo, había alguna sección donde se entrevistaba al autor (estoy bastante segura que no aparece nada de la coautora) y me chocó puesto que está entre las páginas de la historia. La verdad es que me sacó bastante del hilo (si hubiera estado al final como en otros títulos me hubiera parecido más interesante).

Los personajes siguen en su línea, pero se observa algo de evolución en algunos de ellos como es lógico al llegar al final de una serie.

El final es acorde a la historia, a lo que hemos estado viendo a lo largo de los volúmenes.

Es cierto que no he conectado del todo con estos libros, pero tenía ganas de saber cómo continuaría todo. Las ilustraciones son expresivas y detalladas y la historia es interesante: un mundo paralelo del que esperaba más aventuras.

[Frédéric]

Confused, not really funny, not really thrilling, the book is neither fish nor fowl, never really knowing where it leans to. Quite surprising considering Allison's Giant days where he manages to drive a non-plotted story way, way better. And it's fun to boot.
Another unfavorable comparison: simply put, the art sucks. Don't gimme no shit with the "it's another style" line. It's not. It's just lack of skills and talent. Gimme Max Sarin's great art anytime.

[B]

Somehow a lot happens and there are still a lot of loose threads. I can't tell if this end was rushed or if it was in the nature of the story for there to be this drawn-out cascade of big events.

The covers seem to understand that Gardt is the most interesting part of the story. The second most interesting part is probably Chip Charles or Chet Charles or whoever because he builds this gate. And the third is the living mountain. But they all kind of get short shrift. I'm still not really sure what happened to Chip Chester.

Also, bug protein is probably good for society.

[Alex Sarll]

Secrets are revealed and chickens come home to roost as the series concludes. Allison's gift for outlandish occurrences and wonderful turns of phrase is still in operation, and the epilogue tries to strike a cheerful note, but all the same it feels like an unusually grim read for him, with the abiding sentiment that there's more than one way to hollow out the heart of a land and a culture.

[Audrey]

A pretty abrupt ending!

[Jenna]

I’d say maybe I’d get more out of this series if I read it all in one sitting, but I’m not sure if that would really be the case... Couldn’t get into the characters and the plot seemed rather flimsy at best. Unfortunate, since it’s John Allison!

[lectricemeri]

Je commence à aimer de + en + ! Ça me hype.

[Emma]

WHAT WAS EVEN THE POINT OF THIS SERIES?

[Chris Lemmerman]

[This review covers all three volumes of By Night]

By Night, from the mastermind behind Giant Days, John Allison, is a twelve issue maxi-series that features two friends who are trying to work out what to do with their lives when they uncover a conspiracy that spans dimensions and decades and could shake their tiny little town to its core.

I don't really know what to make of By Night, honestly. It meanders along for twelve issues after establishing its characters, finding a few tangents to go on instead (like the random issue about one of the characters getting their legs broken by a local mob boss, because sure), only really remembering the true plot of the book near the end and then reaching that ending on a bit of an anticlimax. It's strangely paced to say the least, and feels like both too much plot for just twelve issues and at times not enough plot to justify running that long.

I wanted to try not to compare this book to Giant Days, but it's difficult when that one's so good and this one's just kind of there. The characters aren't nearly as likeable as those in Giant Days, and it's hard to root for any of them when you can forget their names at times.

On art we have Christine Larsen, who does a fine job, but really doesn't get enough to work with. The sequences set in the Otherworld are fun and her designwork is great, but the human world stuff gets pretty bland when the town of Spectrum is basically various shades of grey.

By Night's not a bad book - it just can't seem to decide what it wants to be, and by the time it does, it's run out of pages to tell the story successfully.

[Anne]

While I wasn’t in love with this series, there was something about the concept or the artwork that made me want to see how it would conclude. Maybe the ending would get all the pieces right and I would walk away feeling satisfied from By Night.

Nope.

We get some answers about Chet Charles and Charlesco that we’ve been waiting for, but then the book suddenly realizes it only has a few pages left, so it quick kills off a character, whips together an ending, and that’s it. It feels like we hardly hear from our protagonists Jane and Heather. I’m not sure they got the growth or resolution they deserved.

The artwork, with its saturated colors and quirkiness, is what makes this series worth reading.

[Nate]

This series never rose above "somewhat amusing" for me. It has Allison's quippy dialogue, but I don't think I laughed out loud once. Except for Chip, none of the characters stood out to me. They feel like stock John Allison characters with none of the charm of Lottie Grote or Esther DeGroot. The whole otherworld felt underexplored, too. The more I think about it, the more confused I am as to what Allison set out to accomplish with this series.

[Emma]

Entertaining enough but a bit of a lacklustre ending.

[B]

I don't know if this ending was rushed or if it was meant to feel really loose or what.

But basically there are a bunch of big surprises and a bunch of loose ends. There were really three characters I wanted to see more of: Gardt (and his brother), Chip Charles, and the scary mountain. But we get only a little of each.

And then a lot of things are unclear. Like who really killer Chet Charles and why? And who is acting appropriately/morally in this tale?

[Alma Lectora]

la historia ha sido muy entretenida y el misterio del otro mundo, junto a las aventuras de esconder la máquina, han sido muy divertidas. Pero el final me ha dejado un sabor amargo por la rapidez de su conclusión. Espero que esa ultima viñeta de a más historias de este mundo.

Más sobre mi opinión en la reseña del blog
https://almalectora.wordpress.com/202...

[Ashley]

I'm not going to lie, I wasn't a big fan of this. I was lukewarm about the series all along, not liking the story but appreciating the art. But that couldn't even save this collection. I didn't really understand the story; the climax and conclusion were kind of lost on me. I'm just glad this series was three books long so I never have to wonder what happened.

[Mark Sutherland]

It's a shame that this nostalgia trip was cut short as it feels like it was just starting to find it's way in this volume. The flashback issue is by far the stand out with a distinctly 90s X-Men vibe. It's a shame to see Allison's first real foray outside of the scary go round universe go awry, but it sounds like many lessons were learned in the process.

[Andy]

This was probably more like a 3.5 but I rounded up. This is an enjoyable comic series with quirky characters and a dry sense of humor. I liked the storyline right until the end. It felt rushed. Like all, of a sudden realized they had half a dozen loose threads to tie up and so they speed-ran the last few chapters. So, it kind of ended weakly for me but overall, I enjoyed myself.

[Francesca Giardiello]

Finale non finale, nessuna conclusione, nessuna crescita dei personaggi e nessun messaggio imparato.

Tanto caos e il racconto non porta il lettore da nessuna parte. Un'occasione mancata che si è rivelata uno spreco di tempo.

[Katy]

The pacing was just super off in the whole series... Too many characters as well -- wished there had been less people but we got to spend more time with them. This book especially felt rushed as it tried to tie together a lot of loose ends, and the epilogue felt a little out of place.

[K]

The final volume that wraps up the quirky story of a small-town businessman who went missing after opening a portal into another universe, as told from the perspective of two young teen girls who want to cash in on exposing its existence. We get closure, but it's not satisfying.

[Tinker]

2,5 stars
Ok lopetus sarjalle. Ei yhtä hyvä kuin sarjan aiemmat osat. Kokonaisuus jää latteaksi.

[Steven]

An enjoyable miniseries reminiscent of Scooby-Doo x The Wizard of Oz.

[Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind)]

Series end. A bit disjointed but it was nice seeing the characters journey complete.

[Kathy]

This, overall, was just not my bag of chips.

If you want to read something amazing by John Allison, pick up Giant Days which is amazing and hilarious. I wouldn’t suggest By Night to anyone.

[Leah]

plot gets real messy

[Eric Nagurney]

Huh. Well, that was certainly an abrupt end.

[Tara]

Rather abrupt ending...

[R]

Very good but very gruesome! An interesting wrap to the series.