Ticking Time Bombs at Midnight

One of the things writers always talk about in plot constructions is the ticking time bomb. There's no better way to add drama and a sense of urgency to your story than by having a countdown of some kind, whether it's literal or figurative.

In Kyle Baker's "I Die At Midnight," it's literal. It's right there in the title. The protagonist has until midnight to get the medication he needs to save his life.

This is Kyle Baker mixing a bit of Hitchcock with a touch of Looney Tunes. Set on New Year's Eve, 1999, this is the story of Larry, who's downed a vial filled with pills because he can't stand to live without his girlfriend, who's left him.

But then she comes back. He needs to stop the overdose before it kills him, without letting his girlfriend know about it. Just like the red lights that all pop up when you're running late to somewhere you're driving to, Larry hits every conceivable road block in increasing complications.

That's what makes this book so good. Baker controls the narrative and builds everything up to a deafening crescendo. It starts off realistically and with a great sense of frustration, but them grows wilder as midnight nears.

Larry starts by merely distracting the girlfriend of his dreams while trying to convince a doctor to give him medication to counteract the pills he just took.

Things get crazier when it comes to the doctor's murderous boyfriend, a race across Times Square on New Year's Eve, a race up and down skyscrapers, and crashing helicopters. The book progresses from the small and believable to the large and the wild. You're along for the ride so easily, you don't even notice when it turns. (I can give you the exact moment it turns, but it's a bit of a plot twist I don't want to give away. If you know the book: It happens when you turn the page during a subway scene.)

Baker is tongue-in-cheek about it at times, purposefully going over the top with the situation to pull the most laughs out of the moment. Larry tries throwing up the pills, for example, but is stopped by the janitor who pours his heart out to him about his bad luck in life. Larry is dying inside, but he can't just walk away from this guy.

It's situation after situation like that, until it gets bigger and Larry's near-death instincts carry him to bigger gestures and more desperate actions, like jumping out of skyscrapers. Larry goes all out.

Baker doesn't get weighed down by reality here. He's playing this book for laughs, with nods and winks. It's how he gets away with some of the crazier bits of the book, which I'm happy to see.

The whole plot is constructed to build up beautifully. It milks every moment for a good gag or action beat.

It's done in the style you'd expect from Kyle Baker -- borderless panels with all the dialogue running along the bottom margins.

It does show a bit of its age, though, in its aggressive use of the computer. Most all of the black lines are colored in, except most of the hair and some eye definitions. Lots of backgrounds are done on the computer, including a glorious shot of Times Square that's filled with ads for Baker's other books and various gags of his own.

Some of the backgrounds look like they're constructed with basic shapes inside a computer. You get the outlines and perfect perspective, done in bold solid colors, occasionally faded out to fake bokeh for atmosphere and focus.

It feels a little experimental for the time and serves well as a time capsule for what computers were good for at the time. I'm sure if Baker did this book today, it would be a lot slicker. There'd probably be more SketchUp models included and all.

Baker even used the computer to blur planes to simulate rack focus here.

But, all in all, it's a great book. It moves fast, pulls off all its gags beautifully, and has a distinctive look. I'm less thrilled with nearly every line getting colored in, but that's a personal preference.

If you've never read "I Die At Midnight" before, it's worth a look, even with the Y2K setting that might feel dated today. These days, the marketing folks would just call it "retro," so it's a feature and not a bug.

The book is available digitally, where it's been remastered. The fonts have changed and the colors are clearer/less saturated. There also appears to be a paper texture background added to it. That might just be bad reproduction on the preview from ComiXology, but I don't think it is. The cover looks horrible, though, like it's extremely low-resolution.

It's still worth reading. When you're done with it, move on immediately to "The Cowboy Wally Show". Trust me.

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