THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2026! Long term lovers of graphic novels will likely be familiar with the name Darryl Cunningham. A staple graphic novel non-fiction author, Cunningham has an extensive and impressive backlist, including Psychiatric Tales, Supercrash, Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful and Putin: The Rise of a Dictator and Elon Musk: American Oligarch. Excitingly, a rarer foray into fiction, John of the Night, was fully funded on Kickstarter this summer, in collaboration with innovative indie publisher Avery Hill.
The premise alone is enough to understand why John of the Night got backed so quickly: “A scientist races against a god-killing cult, cosmic collapse, and his witch-queen ex-wife to save creation – even if it costs him the person he loves most”. It’s the year 5025, and scientist John works at the centre of all creation: Far Eternity, where all the multiverses are kept in perfect balance. Noticing some odd ripples in time, John investigates, finding out that an entire universe has somehow been erased. But how can this be, when only a demi-god or the supreme being himself can erase whole universes? John is ordered by his boss to forget it ever happened, but that’s just not in his nature. Meanwhile, his daughter Aysha’s mother Medea (yes, from Greek myth), a bad-ass witch queen, is planning to sacrifice her, as she believes the ritual is necessary to divert an imminent invasion. Well, she is kind of famous for that kind of thing. With fires to put out everywhere, it’s not a great day to be John.
As John and Aysha investigate further (all whilst trying to dodge her mother), they uncover the truth behind the universe erasure: a plot by The Perfection – a fanatical cult – to kill God and reboot the “flawed” multiverse into something supposedly perfect. From here, things get increasingly chaotic, with John caught between trying to save creation, protect his daughter and work out exactly who he can trust. There are gods, witches, cults, time travel, multiple universes and some bizarre twists thrown into the mix.
The artwork was a real standout here. Cunningham’s style is so distinctive, being deceptively simple, clean-lined and almost minimalist in places, but capable of suddenly becoming much more elaborate when the story calls for it. Ordinary-looking characters like John and Aysha are set against huge, bizarre cosmic environments, with strange machines, gods, otherworldly landscapes and surreal celestial imagery filling the page around them. I particularly loved the contrast between the very human, often quite mundane moments and the completely bonkers scale of what is happening around them. There are some fantastic silhouettes and dramatic angles throughout, while the restrained colour palette stops all the weirdness from becoming visually overwhelming. The art expands with the scale of the story too: quieter conversations can be incredibly simple, before suddenly giving way to gorgeous, densely designed panels when things get properly cosmic. There are also all the little visual references and easter eggs, from Doctor Who and Thunderbirds, which add to the feeling that Cunningham is having a blast throwing all these influences into one very strange universe.
There is A LOT going on here: the world Cunningham has created is hugely imaginative, with different gods, universes, cults, timelines and increasingly wild plot developments. It’s the kind of book where you can probably spend quite a bit of time going back over the artwork and picking out things you missed the first time around.
The sheer ambition of John of the Night was incredibly enjoyable. It’s funny, strange, incredibly imaginative and unafraid to throw another increasingly ridiculous idea at you. There’s something very refreshing about a graphic novel that feels like its creator has decided to put EVERYTHING he finds interesting into one story and see what happens. It won’t be for everyone, and I definitely didn’t understand every single thing that was going on, but I had a lot of fun with it, and Cunningham’s artwork alone makes this one worth picking up.
Darryl Cunningham (W/A) • Avery Hill Publishing, £14.99
Review by Lydia Turner
Avery Hill Publishing are at Table C10 in the Bubbleboy Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2026 runs from November 9th-15th with the convention weekend taking place on the 14th-15th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2026 coverage so far in one place here.
Poster art by Núria Tamarit
