NIGHTSHIFT

NIGHTSHIFT

• Publishing Company:

  ILYA GRAPHIC

• Imprint:

• Format:

  ONE SHOT

• Creator(s):

  ED HILLYER (ARTIST/WRITER)

• Number of Pages:

  48

• Publication Date:

  unpublished (originally commissioned by Fleetway for their Euro-pudding REVOLVER/EXPRESSO line.)

• Age:

  ADULT

• Fiction/Non-Fiction

  FICTION

• Key words:

  BELONGING, YOUNG LOVE, STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, SLICE OF LIFE, HUMOUR ,

• Summary:

  NIGHTSHIFT

  Originally commissioned back in 1991 for Fleetway UK’s abortive REVOLVER offshoot, EXPRESSO magazine, this features as its central character Alex (the “shithead” from another comic of mine, BiC/SKiDMARKS).

  Extent: 48 fully painted full colour pages
  (written, drawn and lettered by ILYA: painted colours in collaboration with Dondi Cox)

  Format: Large magazine (like 2000AD etc.)

  Never published (magazine folded prior to completion).
  I managed to get my rights back but Fleetway stiffed me on the deal.

  NIGHTSHIFT_ILYA.pdf
  These old scans of the large-scale pages are clumsily done, especially with the lettering overlays, but give at least some idea of it.

  Genre: Kitsch-n’synch drama. The storyline features Alex in a central role (a supporting character from another series in ‘my’ universe – BiC/SKIDMARKS – original self-published; then repackaged by Tundra in 1993 as a 3-issue mini-series; and ultimately collected as a book in 2003 by Active Images).

  It’s an everyday (by night) ‘fish out of water’ scenario: an intellectual elitist type, working alongside the ‘common people’, on the night shift, restocking shelves in a supermarket – very much a ‘daily life’ plotline that meanwhile explores the then en vogue employee resistance strategy known as ‘Bad Attitude’, and, as it goes on, evolves into the very beginnings of a sweet inter-racial romance.

  In some instances very much a product of its time, by now it almost amounts to a period piece. But equally, much of the social observation in it has never really dated. Later pages feature some quite experimental (yet still very readable) layouts.

  NIGHTSHIFT’s pages live in a folder under my desk and deserve better. If you are interested it would be best to simply let you read the original artwork.

  WAYS FORWARD
  At 48 pages (6x8page episodes, plus covers) I’m told that this makes for an awkward publication in length – too short to be a bona fide book, at least in any economic sense (where extents of 96-120+ work better). My initial concept to get around this was to publish it close to original art size, and in the 2-up fold-out format of a (fat) calendar (so that 48 pages in effect became 96). I still think there could be some mileage in that original solution.

  But my other way around it was (madness!) to produce a notional sequel:

  SEQUEL : TRUE COLOURS
  There’s actually a far darker fully-blown sequel to this, URBAN TRIBAL (now TRUE COLOURS), which some years later, had that magazine continued, editor Frank Wynne was very keen to have run in DEADLINE (in the early-mid 1990s).

  I’ve latterly worked up an update of this from my original notes and sketches, and even produced a sample section of it in collaboration with Paul Harrison Davies on art duties.

  TRUE COLOURS works entirely separately as a standalone feature, but it does also return to and focus on the story of 2 central characters from NIGHT SHIFT (Alex and Colette, aka Coco) revisiting a dark-mirror universe interpretation of their brief and hesitant interracial relationship, now that it seems firmly over– this time, there’s psychosexual aberrations, psychological abuse and stalking.

  So, my proposal is either to revive NIGHTSHIFT as a solo piece (and potentially the first of two); or else for NIGHTSHIFT and its notional sequel TRUE COLOURS to be presented as two titles in one, perhaps even as a flip-book. A two-in-one paired Graphic Novel – by ILYA with Paul Harrison Davies and Dondie Cox.

  I would be happy to lend the NIGHTSHIFT folder for you to read through, on request. Meanwhile, I enclose a full written proposal plus art sample for TRUE COLOURS.

  Thank you.

  ILYA Graphic