Night and the Enemy

by Harlan Ellison, Ken Steacy (Illustrator)

Book by Ellison, Harlan

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Harlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.

His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".

Reviews

[Shadowdenizen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can be said about Harlan Ellison that hasn't been said already?

Putting aside the tall tales, quirks and stories that have grown around him... He is a damn talented writer, deservedly ranking up there with some of the other masters of the genre.

Thus, even a "lesser" work like this (and YMMV, of course!) by Ellison is still pretty freaking compelling stuff. And such is the case with this, the re-release of "Night and the Enemy."

Ellison has taken several of his existing short-stories, wrapped a narrative framing device around them, and had them translated to Graphic-Novel format.

And it works on a grand level.

These linked stories tell the tale of the Earth-Kyba war, giving us glimpses into various event of this war. As a whole, the series is satisfyingly bleak and brutal (as is approrpiate for the theme of the saga).

But, at the same time it seems like these ideas are not quite fully-formed, and leaves tantalizing ideas just out of reach of the casual reader. (Of course, this is understandable, given the limited space available to tell these tales.)

All in all, this is absolutely an Ellison tale worth digesting (and the artwork enhances and matches the story ideally), though it's admittedly not Ellison at the very peak of his game.

4 "Repent, Harlequin" stars.

Full disclosue: with many thank, I got this digital copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not so much a graphic novel as a collection of five of Ellison's short stories that have been heavily illustrated by Ken Steacy. The stories share the background of Ellison's Earth-Kyba War series, most known from his Outer Limits episodes. The art is rather uneven, being too much in the style of Richard Corben in Run for the Stars but quite effective in Life Hutch, which is my favorite story from the book. Overall, the book is a very nice entertainment.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was very disappointed with this one. Harlan Ellison is one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to see something new. This wasn't what I was expecting, that's for sure.

The story was hard to follow, and the book felt more like an illustrated novel rather than a graphic novel. I know that sounds confusing, but this wasn't what I would classify as a "comic book" in the strictest sense.

The artwork suffered, too, and felt amateurish to me.

Not recommended.

[Philip Athans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sure I've read the original Earth-Kyba War stories before--definitely "Life Hutch" (multiple times)--but this graphic collection adds to the stories, lending them an updated (as of the late 1980s) feel. The art is good, too, and though I wouldn't go so far as to call it "dated," it definitely has that post-Corbin 80s feel to it.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

'Night and the Enemy' with stories by Harlan Ellison illustrated by Ken Steacy takes five Earth-Kyba stories and adds illustrations to them. The stories are good. I have mixed emotions about the illustrations.

First off, the cover design is amazing, and is what drew me in. After a brief introduction by Harlan Ellison and another by Ken Steacy, we get to the stories. Some are fully illustrated like comic book stories (sort of), others are full text with some illustrations.

I've liked Ken Steacy's work in Tempus Fugitive and in Robotech. It feels like a wrong fit for these stories. The art feels overly colorful for the dark stories presented. Another problem is in the fully illustrated, comic style stories. The text is black, but not in word balloons. This creates a lack of contrast between the dark text and the dark background and makes for a tough time reading.

The stories are classics and deserve to be read. I'm just not crazy about this version of them. Go find them elsewhere and read them. They are great shared universe stories that only have a long running war in common, but the themes are of people at war, and what they bring home. Timeless themes and well written.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of stories connected by the central theme of a war between humans and an alien race.

Some good sketches. Bright colours, that jump at you. Psychodelic. Vivid, with strong contrasts. I like the page layouts of the pages with less text. The font used was boring.

Good stories. And humans are not necessarily the good guys. Or the smart ones. There is a lot of crazy. More elaboration would have been nice, the stories felt unfinished. In total pretty depressing.

Quite a lot of text for a comic. Some stories are balanced evenly between sketches and text, others look more like classic comics. One story is text only with an illustrated banner at the top. Not necessarily what I would understand as a graphic novel.

I received this free copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

[Daisy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Stars

Though there's probably an audience for this kind graphic novel, but unfortunately it doesn't include me. While I see warfare as an interesting setting to explore people and cultures and create stories from, I'm not a big fan of when it's just dramatised for entertainment. I would also say that I found quite a bit of the dialogue and narrative hard to make out in its thin font on top of the images - and at times there was so much text on a page it became quite confusing on what to read first. However, I'm sure there are people who would like the old school comic-book style illustrations and colours, and would appreciate the classic perspective of military battles etc.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of sf war stories written by notorious pest Ellison and illustrated by national treasure Ken Steacy. In case you were wondering, war is hell and the framing element is kind of hilarious. I got it in a BMV for half cover so that was a bargain.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic classic sci-fi short story fiction by one of my favourite author's of the genre. These five stories don't really have anything to do with each other except that they take place during a two-hundred-year war between Earth and a humanoid race, the Kyben. Most of the stories are personal encounters with characters and a couple deal with the follies of war. I love Ellison's characterization and dialogue and his science isn't overly techie so it doesn't sound outdated or campy. I really enjoyed these stories, which I don't remember having read before. However, the art didn't appeal to me at all. The colours are muddy and the people are stiff with unnatural faces. I kind of got a "Thunderbirds" vibe from it for some reason, like they were puppets. A couple of the stories have been adapted into graphic "comic" style while the others are simply the full text of the short stories illustrated in full colour. Great for fans of the author!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a graphic collection of five short stories about the Earth-Kyba war. It is science fiction. It is well written as I expected from the author Harlan Ellison. The illustrations done by Ken Steacy are perfect for each story. At times, I was a little confused where one story ended and another started. However this did not keep me from enjoying this graphic novel. It is a book for every Harlan Ellison collectors! Do read it or you will miss some excellent writing.

Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book free from the author/publisher from Netgalley. I was not obliged to write a favorable review, or even any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

[Lindsay King · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a real novice when it comes to graphic novels but Harlan Ellison has me gagging for more.
This novel is about the Earth-Kyba war and I was drawn into this austere world with the words and the astonishing art work.
I thoroughly recommend this to any graphic novel lovers and to novices like me. I am now a complete graphic novel convert. Thank you Harlan Ellison :)
I was so happy to receive a copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is definitely some old-school Sci-fi. While I didn't love it, it was okay. Not my thing though. Had a good amount of prose in it, which was fine, I just didn't like the stories.

I received an advanced copy of this from NetGalley.com and the publisher.

[Phil Giunta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published by Comico in 1987, Night and the Enemy is a graphic anthology consisting of five military SF tales written by Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Ken Steacy. Each story takes place during the two hundred-year-long interstellar war between Earth and golden-skinned aliens known as the Kyben.

“Run for the Stars” – Petty criminal and drug addict Benno Tallant is abducted by Earth resistance forces and implanted with a bomb to destroy the Kyben, but Tallant finds a way to gain the upper hand against both the Kyben forces and ultimately, Earth.

“Life Hutch” – After crash landing on a small planet during a space battle, a pilot named Terrance locates a life hutch—one of many small survival facilities constructed on planets across the galaxy in the event of an emergency. However, the robot programmed to maintain the life hutch malfunctions and attacks Terrance, leaving him severely wounded. Terrance soon realizes that he must remain immobile lest he trigger the robot again… but for how long?

“The Untouchable Adolescents” – Captain Luther Shreve offers assistance to the juvenile inhabitants of the planet Diamore, which will soon suffer a devastating natural catastrophe unless machines can be deployed to direct the shockwave to the planet’s oceans. However, the telepathic inhabitants do not trust the humans after their world was already plundered by the Kyben months before. They warn the humans to leave, yet Shreve insists on helping them—resulting in the deaths of six crewmembers. Finally, Shreve relents, but what price will the Diamore pay for their decision?

“Trojan Hearse” – The Kyba construct a metal ring called the Orifice through which vessels can travel at the speed of light to another ring elsewhere across the galaxy. In this case, to a ring hidden on Earth. Shortly after a human spy escapes Kyba with schematics to the Orifice, the Kyben decide to invade, confident that Earth could not have developed a defense in such a short time…

“Sleeping Dogs” – On Epsilon Indy IV, ambassador Lynn Ferraro attempts to stop warmongering Commander Drabix from destroying a series of what he believes are Kyben strongholds scattered across the planet. However, it is soon discovered that their weapons are incapable of penetrating these featureless black cubes. Finally, Drabix orders his ship in orbit to open fire on one of them— which he soon regrets.

All told, Night and the Enemy is a quick and engrossing read by one of the masters of the short story and beautifully illustrated by Steacy.

[StrictlySequential ArtNarrative · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loosely define Ellison as a harlot. He's like a sex-worker- quantity over quality. The ideas penetrate his brain then in short order he spews them all over the page and moves on to the next load.

I believe he would have a bookSHELF of masterworks if he could apply whatever time, energy and effort that it takes him to write twenty stories and use it to write one. Instead he has a bookSTORE with enough good stores to endlessly gain fans but there are only a few great ones with lasting power scattered around.

This book has five sections bound together by a story that amounts to an ever-revolving wheel of cheesedick. Two "stories" within are unquestionably solid. One of them is intense and brief- about a man who must find a way to survive in a place that should be his means of safety in the first place. I loved it as a scene. Placed within a better story it would be marvelous! I also give credit to another that involved trying to aid an "adolescent race" which didn't want their help. That had a few scenes and as a whole was good writing but it's another that you jump in, hump around and exit quickly. I'll forget I was ever there within the week.

I can't recall any notable details from his many stories that I've listened to- I only remember one that I read in graphic form which probably would've washed away had there not been an artist bolstering it.

If he didn't have a magnetic personality and razor whit would...

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice glossy book by Dover of a collaboration between Harlan Ellison and Ken Steacy, producing a loosely connected set of six illustrated planetary adventure stories. Pas de romance. Think: space soldiers and pilots of a never-ending interspecies war as context for the adventures within. All stories illustrated, some with panels, some without. Reads very much like pulp magazine fiction, and fun, but ultimately forgettable.

Contents:
-Prologue
-Run for the Stars
-Life Hutch. (This was my favorite. Maybe not quite forgettable.)
-The Untouchable Adolescents
-Trojan Hearse
-Sleeping Dogs
-The Few, The Proud
-Epilogue

[Craig Childs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison has been a champion of graphic novels as far back as 1978, when he commissioned The Illustrated Harlan Ellison decades before it became fashionable for every bestselling novel to be adapted into a comic and every comic to be adapted into a movie.

This project was a one-time collaboration with illustrator and author Ken Steacy. Ellison wrote an introduction and framing device (a prologue and epilogue) to tie his six Earth-Kyba stories together. Steacy then adapted them using full-color illustrations. Each story is drawn in a different and distinct style.

Dover Publications has reissued this very unique graphic novel for the first time since its original 1987 publication. This new edition features a story “The Few, the Proud” that was previously available only in a limited edition, plus 3 additional pages of pre-production artwork.

“Run for the Stars” – A fast-paced, violent, and exciting early story from 1957. A drug addict is captured by the human army, implanted with a bomb, and left as bait for the invading Kyben forces. The ending is shocking and changes what readers thought they knew about the 200-year war that follows. Full color illustrations rendered in muted shadowy tones. Note this is based on the original version of the story, not the 1992 expanded rewrite.

“Life Hutch” -- A great locked-room thriller story. A wounded pilot stranded on a barren planet is terrorized by an out of control malfunctioning robot. One of the better offerings from Ellison’s early years. It features a clever ending and reminded me of something Isaac Asimov might have written. The text of the short story is presented nearly in full interspersed with several black-and-white illustrations. (Note: a few small phrases of prose appear to be omitted when they are redundant with the drawings, such as “rolling his unlit cigarette absently between two fingers”).

“The Untouchable Adolescents” – A human starship captain tries to save a dying world, but the native inhabitants will not let him help; they have already fought the Kybens and as a result are now suspicious of all outsiders. Full-color illustrations in what I consider traditional comic book style.

“The Trojan Hearse” – Humans finally manage to outsmart the overly aggressive Kybens and win a decisive battle. This is a short-short story. The text is included in full with only a single illustration that bridges the top half of two pages.

“Sleeping Dogs”—The human army awakes an old slumbering alien race when it tries to conquer a remote planet with strategic military value. I was disappointed in both the story and the artwork. Harlan never shows the aliens; in fact, the narrative ends as they are waking. Nor do we learn what happens as a result of their entry into the conflict as a third army. The illustrations of the alien chambers are suspiciously similar to Kubrick’s monoliths in the movie 2001.

“The Few, the Proud”—This is a visceral antiwar story of a young enthusiastic soldier who loses his idealism after slaughtering a village of Kyben elders, women, and children. It seemed to be inspired by some of the atrocities of Vietnam War. The story is not subtle, but evocative. The lone illustration that introduces the piece is highly effective.

I enjoyed this book even though the individual stories never coalesced into a cohesive plot. They do not build on each other. They are a set of rather random science fiction tales that all happen to occur against the backdrop of the same war.

For purposes of completeness, I wish Ellison and Steacy had adapted Cutter’s World, which was Harlan’s unfilmed television pilot that featured the Kyben race. Inclusion of a graphic novel adaptation of Demon with a Glass Hand would have also been nice. They Kybens did not appear directly, but they were the unseen villains that drove that plot, which related events occurring near the end of the conflict.

I recommend the print version over the Kindle version. I was disappointed in the Kindle Fire interface which is intended to display each frame of the page individually. Unfortunately, sometimes frames are presented out of order which makes the text hard to follow. The interface was also apt to freeze up sporadically.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review originally published in . Rated 2.5 of 5

Harlan Ellison is one of those writers that people tend to either really like or really hate. I fall in to the former category. I'll buy anything with Harlan's name on it, and have since 1975 when I first discovered him for myself. And one of the things that I have liked about Harlan's career is that he works in a variety of mediums - from fiction to essays to television to graphic novels. And I will admit that I haven't kept up with his graphic novel work as much as I have his other writings. And maybe, now that I've read this, I now know why.

When Harlan Ellison writes fiction, his imagination is his canvas and he uses words to paint incredible pictures. When he writes specifically for the graphic novel, he understands that the artist does some of the work and he backs off, ever so slightly, from painting the full picture. And if you have one of the more brilliant graphic novel artists who can keep up with the quality of an Ellison story, the output could be stupendous. But on the other end ... if the artist can't do Ellison justice, the output could be a disaster. In this case, it is the latter.

Ellison's five stories here are decent, though not necessarily his top works, but still ... it's Harlan Ellison and worth reading.

Ken Steacy's art is tremendously lacking. Don't be fooled by the cover as seen above. If you haven't already learned this, the cover art on graphic novels is rarely as eye-catching or as strong as the work inside. Steacy's art is full of vibrant colors. At times, it reminded me of the coloring in Richard Corben's artwork (as I remember it from the early days of Heavy Metal magazine), but there (colors) the similarity ends. Despite shadings and fore-shortening, Steacy's artwork is terribly flat and uninteresting. This work was much more the work of an amateur than a seasoned professional. Which is not to say that all amateurs aren't capable of producing strong works, it just happens that in this case, the artist isn't ready for this level of exposure.

It's hard to overlook the art to review the story when discussing a graphic novel. The stories have a common theme - they each relate to Earth-Kyba (an alien race) relations and war. The first story, "Run For the Stars" was my favorite and was very Ellison-esque. Humans are about to evacuate a planet but they don't trust the Kyba so (giving the Kyba a reason not to trust humans) the humans plant a bomb inside one man and leave him alone on the planet to fend off the aliens. I also enjoyed "The Untouchable Adolescents" in which a race of very young aliens have learned not to trust outsiders, so when the earth men say they are there to help because the planet core is not stable, the aliens (or locals) don't want their help. But of course learn too late that they do need help.

I liked the premise of "Sleeping Dogs" but the story lacked some substance (this felt like it was written specifically to tie in to the collection, and rather hastily). "The Few The Proud" felt like a Vietnam commentary.

This is perhaps one of my least favorite Harlan Ellison collections, but I'd still read some weaker Ellison over many other writers.

Looking for a good book? The reissue of Night and the Enemy, by Harlan Ellison and Ken Steacy features some typically Ellison fiction with some not quite great artwork.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[Mens Rea · Rating 2 out of 5]

What this graphic novel is about:

The human species is in war with an alien humanoid species, the Kybans. The war is cruel and extends to include other planets, tribes and peoples in its catastrophy. We follow five short stories of different individuals from various perspectives of the war.

Night And The Enemy is illustrated in the old-school, sci-fi style and this is my first time reading something like that. Some parts of the short stories were quite interesting. The first two stories, in my opinion, were far better than the rest of the graphic novel. Moreover. there were some powerful messages about the cruelty of war and the monsters it makes of men, to refer to Mr Patrick Ness here.

But overall I can't say that I liked it. For me it was just an okay read. I didn't really like the art style which I found very strange and unfamiliar. Also, I felt overwhelmed by the amount of text on the book which I thought was a lot! There were some parts that I wanted to skim through but made myself read them. I don't know.. I think that I was expecting more from a graphic novel about aliens and planets and war, having Saga, Volume 1 in my mind as an example.

But I do think that other people who are more experienced than me with sci-fi graphic novels and enjoy the old style of illustrations will appreciate the art and the book in general more than I did. I probably wouldn't recommend it to people who have never read something similar to this before.

[Siina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the relaunch of the comic that's originally from the late 1980s. It's shows. Sadly so. Night and the Enemy is a scifi comic about the war between the Earth and Kyben. It's a psychological story that consists of five smaller stories all centered around the war. It was extremely hard to tell the stories apart, since the transitions weren't good. None of the characters were introduced, so their struggles didn't matter and it was very hard to even recognize the characters. The idea was interesting though and how in the name of a war we end up creating this image of monster enemies, even if they are so much like ourselves.

The structure just doesn't work and the walls of text in between are hideous. The structure of the speech bubbles hurts the eyes and the yellow boxes burn the eyes, so it's a double pain. The font of the text doesn't fit and looks cheap. The plot then. It's extremely hard to describe the plot, since I don't think there was any except the war. It felt like someone just put the art to a text without matching them - they are just two separate things. The art is so and so. It looks very 1980s and the colors are psychedelic. I like the dark tones, but the fuchsia and whatnot give a headache. It doesn't help that the panels don't follow one another seamlessly. Structure-wise this is such a mess and the art looks outdated, so I don't really get why this has been published once again. Night and the Enemy isn't a good comic, even if the story has potential. I'm glad comics have evolved since this.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

A strange issue this, one that will certainly appeal to fans of the old school in sci-fi, although I doubt, me being one of them, they will find that much favour with it. A weak framing story leads us to a half-dozen stories, written years apart, and entirely self-contained, but set in and around the same war. Too many of them, however, have the tendency to just dribble out and end – and not very well at the best of times. The first couple were the best – in one we meet an unfortunate walking bomb, and the other has one man and a rogue robot stuck together in quite implausible circumstances. The artwork makes the volume not quite a graphic novel – this really is on illustrated book ground, especially with the final story only having 'cover art' and no other embellishment. Visually it's take-it-or-leave-it; a quality shared by the writing. There are glimpses of virtue, but on the whole it's quite disposable, and therefore still surprising to see come from this publisher.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m still trying to figure out if this is the part of a series or not. It’s a little hard to get up to speed in some places, even with the prologue.

Here you’ll few short stories taking place during a long war between earth and another planet. Part of it is more graphic novel. Part of it is more illustrated story.

Though I love the art – it’s designed well for a dark future where we’ve been battling aliens for years.

And Ellison always does a decent job of writing; even if in some of these stories it was hard to get my bearings at the very beginning.

And he does a decent job of communicating a truth we should all know by now: war is insanity.

And according to Ellison, no – it’s not a part of a larger series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dover Publications for a copy in return for an honest review.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally think of Harlan Ellison as cutting edge, and I'm sure this was when published in 1987. Graphic works (this is actually 5 short stories in the same universe despite Harlan Ellison writing on the last page how much he dislikes sequels or works using the same universe) have come a long way since then. Although I enjoyed this work, I rated at only 3 stars as each of the stories were so limited in the idea being presented that none seems fully fleshed out. Like early science fiction, ideas are presented without any real character development, just positions to represent ideas. It is a quick read although the story overwhelms the graphics at times. That does not hurt a thing as it is the stories which carry the day despite their narrow focus.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This type of heavy sci-fi has just never been my thing. Add to that all of the flaws this has, and it was a bit of a rough read. First, it really wasn't a graphic novel as advertised, but an illustrated set of short stories. Second, the aforementioned short stories were so loosely connected (all surrounding the same intergalactic war) that I had a hard time following it, and we never had any characters around long enough for me to get to know them or care what happened to them. Overall it seemed like it needed a good editor, more content, and a commitment to one style (either fully graphic novel, or a regular illustrated novel, but not the weird cross-over it had going).

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dover Publications has done it again! They offer a reasonably priced reprint of a book, Night and the Enemy that first came out in 1987 when Ken Steacy and Harlan Ellison collaborated in bringing together Ellison's Earth-Kyba War stories in a illustrated/graphic novel format. If you like Ellison, you are likely to enjoy the book. If you have not read Ellison, this is an easy introduction to him. In any case, enjoy these snippets of a war that is long over, but the adventure still goes on.

[Erika Winterlia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find it a bit hard to "get up to speed" and understand the stories in this. Here you have a few short stories done in different ways. Some are more like a graphic novel and some are more illustrated story and in each of them the art is good and interesting, but as I said, I find it hard to get oriented and there seem to be something missing that would hook the reader and make the background of the stories clearer.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of an illustrated group of short stories than a graphic novel. It was really disjointed and hard to follow. The stories were all about a hundred-plus year war between humans and an alien race. But the stories weren't related in any way that matters.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1987, the illustrated collection of shorts by Harlan Ellison is a solid, enjoyable, thought-provoking read. And the Art adds nicely to the experience. Well worth your time if you have opportunity to find a copy!

[Bryce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

The writing is good, the art is good (if dated), but I couldn't muster up any actual interest in the story. It felt like I was reading a sequel to something, I had trouble following. The quality is perfectly good, but it just wasn't my kind of thing.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first graphic novel that has worked for me. The stories were written completely separate from the the later creation of graphics to go with them. Five separate stories with some interesting color graphics.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A blast from the past. I’d forgotten this even existed. Watching “Demon with a glass hand,” I thought, that sounds familiar... and here it is, of course.

Easily one of the best graphic novels I’ve ever read. A good candidate for a tv series.