Night Fisher Author:R. Kikuo Johnson The first book from an amazing new talent. — In what we predict will be the most impressive comics debut of 2005, Kikuo Johnson has created an intimate and compelling graphic novel-length drama of young men on the cusp of adulthood. Loren Foster was handed an island paradise when he moved to Hawaii with his father six years ago. But, with ... more »the end of high school just around the corner, his best friend Shane has grown distant. Their friendship is put to the test when they get mixed up in a frivolous crime that leads to an arrest.
What sets Kikuo's drama apart is the naturalistic ease with which he explores the relationships of his characters. Visually, Johnson captures the languid tropical climate and strip mall tackiness of Hawaii in a rich chiaroscuro style reminiscent of Milton Caniff combined with the sensual ink work of Paul Pope or Jessica Abel.
Kikuo Johnson's debut graphic novel is a compassionate, hard-nosed coming of age story, an unsentimental portrait of that most awkward period between adolescence and adulthood, and that rarest of thingsa mature depiction of immature lives. Kirkus Reviews writes, "Johnson's debut is not only remarkably assured but astonishingly fresh, one that refuses to trade in the usual hoary high-school clichés A dark, grand, sweeping dream of a book."« less