5 out of 5

Another casualty of 80s B&W here-and-gone-ness, creator / penciller Nils Osmar put out a small cluster of comics under his Wonder Comix! imprint and then, so it seems from his current website, eventually turned toward teaching.  If there’s a #2 Night Brigade – and damn I wish there was – I’ve yet to find any evidence of it.

The art (inked and ’embellished’ by Robin Lefberg) has an incredibly clean, bubbly look to it, reminiscent of a lot of the work going on at Eclipse during that era.  Osmar has a quality grasp on framing and timing, and though the lettering is type, the floating word balloons – overlapping panel borders, connecting across panels – and the slightly askew panelling add a nice organic flow to the book.  The story – sort of a “we’re on their side” take on a robot uprising – is just wonderful fun, quickly setting up some key characters we can dig and managing to develop intrigue for its cliffhanger conclusion.  I’ll be tracking down other Wonder Comix!, but it’s definitely a shame we didn’t get to see where Night Brigade would’ve gone.