A novel approach to a terrible night

DAVID BETANCOURT

PAUL DINI has turned a tragic night of fear into a instantly classic graphic novel.

In Dark Night, available in print and digitally from Vertigo Comics, Dini, a writer who contributed to the Batman: The Animated Series and Tiny Toons cartoons in the 1990s, retells the tale of the night his career and life almost came to a halt after he was brutally beaten during a robbery.

The graphic novel, which has a visual assist from artist Eduardo Risso, starts with the reconstructing of Dini’s face after the robbery and leads into the floating in and out of dreams that come after.

The night of the robbery, Dini is seemingly on top of the world, wining and dining with a beautiful actress. But it turns out she’s interested in getting her portfolio to Steven Spielberg, whom she assumes Dini has connections to. Dini quickly realises his girlfriend is just using him so when she offers him a ride home, he declines. He walks off into the shadows and into a dark life-changing moment.

Dini is approached by two men and mugged. One man grabs him by the arms while the other punches him so hard that his glasses shatter. His wallet is taken along with whatever ounce of pride remained after the failed date.

Vertigo Comics, a mature-content imprint of DC Comics, is the best place to tell this story. It explains how Dini uses the characters he wrote about in his cartoon work as a way of healing from the physical and mental pain.

Dark Night feels like the type of tale Vertigo Comics hasn’t been able to tell for some time. But instead of wanting more, you read it hoping Dini will never have to write anything like this again. – Washington Post