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Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin’s Friday, Book One is a chilling and thrilling holiday story that puts a modern spin on Nancy Drew’s mysteries.
Home is where your heart is, but what does that mean when your heart is torn apart? That’s the question explored in Friday, Book One: The First Day of Christmas, an Image Comics’ graphic novel that collects the first three issues of Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente’s Friday. Originally released through Panel Syndicate, this new edition brings the world of Friday Fitzhugh, Lancelot Jones, the White Lady, and the people of Kings Hill to print for the first time. The series is an imaginative and dark look at the struggles of young adulthood juxtaposed with a terrifying mystery. Friday, Book One exemplifies the greatest strengths of its creators and is the perfect read for a cold night with a hot chocolate in hand.
Friday, Book One: The First Day of Christmas opens with Friday Fitzhugh returning home to Kings Hill after her first semester away at college. Friday’s longtime friend, Lancelot Jones, picks her up from the train station and immediately brings her out into the cold, dark night to pursue a mystery. As kids, the two were inseparable, working as junior sleuths throughout the town. But now, after months away, the tension between them makes it difficult for Friday to focus. However, when the pair’s search for answers brings them across an old acquaintance who has seemingly become possessed by the White Lady, they quickly realize that this will be their most chilling case yet, leading them both to shed some light on their town’s dark past.
Winter Soldier creator Ed Brubaker returns to his mystery roots in Friday, Book One. Brubaker’s work is nothing short of tremendous and captures the spirit of classic pulp novels. Friday Fitzhugh is a loving modernization of Nancy Drew and makes a compelling lead. She is a well-rounded character trying to be a young woman, not the girl that Lancelot and everyone in town once knew. Though the story follows Friday, Brubaker chooses to use a third-person narrator. This decision enables him to use heartless exposition to explain the characters’ lives, furthering the book’s emotional narratives. After a career of outstanding pulp-inspired graphic novels, Brubaker still finds subtle ways to reinvent the genre.
Joining Brubaker is frequent Panel Syndicate contributor Marcos Martin. As he recently showed through his work in Conan The Barbarian, Martin’s dynamic characters and versatile page constructions can tell an entire story on their own. Friday and Lance are awkward, rigid, and disproportionate at times. They look as uncomfortable in their own skin as they are with the emotions of Brubaker’s script. Combine this with the otherworldly horrors that lurk within the woods of Kings Hill, and Friday constantly feels like it’s trying to make you feel uneasy.
It cannot be understated how crucial Muntsa Vicente is towards Friday, Book One‘s success. Often, color and light prove to be the most important elements in a horror story. Taking a familiar setting and casting it in shadows or painting it with surreal hues can have a dramatic impact on how readers experience it. Vicente depicts the various flashbacks of the series with beautiful, idyllic colors that feel bright and optimistic. This creates an incredible contrast with the dark, murky shades that dominate those same environments as Friday and Lance search for clues in the modern-day. While these choices aren’t as dramatic or immediately noticeable as those made in books like Stray Dogs, they feel appropriate to this narrative and give it a distinct visual identity.
Overall, Friday, Book One: The First Day of Christmas is an exceptional horror mystery with strong characters, vibrant art, and a unique atmosphere. The work of Brubaker, Martin, and Vicente is nothing short of phenomenal and maintains the high standard of quality that fans can expect from Panel Syndicate. As graphic novel sales continue to rise, Friday, Book One is the perfect book to gift this holiday season to those who don’t follow traditional comics and are looking for a good mystery.
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