Night People #1 (Oni Press, 2024)

From the mind of literary icon Barry Gifford-internationally renowned creator of Wild at Heart and cowriter of David Lynch's neo-noir masterpiece Lost Highway-Night People is a pulsating roadmap of the American subconscious, where neon-lit Southern nights give way to lipstick, sweat, and blood, and the odd, the innocent, and the evil are all fellow travelers down an interstate of dark, elusive dreams. <br> <br>Adapted from Gifford's acclaimed novel by breakout writer Chris Condon (That Texas Blood, The Enfield Gang Massacre) and a rotating cast of stunning artistic talents-including Brian Level (Poison Ivy), Alexandre Tefenkgi (The Good Asian), Artyom Topilin (I Hate This Place), and more-follow an uneasy cast of wanted men, cartel-killers, and lost souls through four interlocking tales as they travel a path of intoxication, lust, and spontaneous violence from New Orleans to Egypt City, Florida, and back again. <br> <br>In our first tale of desperation, fanaticism, and murder: 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 leaving 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.