I've been reading Image's The Nightly News, a six-part comic about an urban revolutionary cult that targets the news media. Written and illustrated by Jonathan Hickman, it's an ambitious work that uses a bold, innovative graphic style to tells its story.

Hickman largely dispenses with the paneled progression of most comics, preferring instead to compose the page as a single layout. Drawing on graphic design techniques, Hickman uses a range of layered graphics to draw the eye across the page. Dense infographics punctuate the story from time to time, offering real-world background on the media industry that serves to deepen the plot.

The graphics and story are both interesting, but I wish Hickman and given more visibility to text within the layout. His technique of using boxes rather than balloons allows the text to wrap around figures and move across the page in interesting ways, but the type in The Nightly News is so small at times that I found it both difficult and annoying to read.

I like The Nightly News, however, in part because it does seem like the artist is experimenting. I can imagine myself buying more of Hickman's work in the future to see how he continues to refine and develop his storytelling style.