Some people have had that one sibling who has gone missing and wishes they can go and save them. Maybe even have a hero with magical powers help them out. “The Girl in the Midnight Gown” by Simon Birks and Juan Fleites has a comic where that happens and it starts strong but ends a little weak.
It’s been a few days since Lela’s twin sister Darby has gone missing. One day she gets a mysterious text message that tells her to go to a bar/barber shop hybrid for heroes called Abe’s where she’s told someone can help her look for Darby.
This is a great and original concept that piques the interest of the reader. For most of the comic, the reader is really invested in how this will play out. Then comes the time when Lela meets her hero. It’s obvious who this hero is even though the comic does everything to make you think it’s someone else. Although what this hero makes Lela do is a rather original concept and a welcome reprieve from the norm.
Then the comic goes from normal comic to short story. This part throws a massive gorilla wrench into the narrative’s flow that it feels like a chore to read it. The short story portion would have been a great read if only it wasn’t so boring. While it is an integral part of the story and is the entire concept of the comic, it’s not any fun to read.
The artwork is a little unbalanced. While the character designs, dragon designs, and colors are neat, the characters’ faces look more along the uncanny valley. Sometimes they look fine, other times they look so ugly that it’s hard to look at them. Even when the characters look happy the way the expressions are drawn don’t look right.
“The Girl in the Midnight Gown” has a lot of great and original ideas, and while most of it is great the rest comes crashing down. The art also has many ups and downs to it, but the overall experience isn’t a total waste of time.
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