Forget the glitter and beautiful cars to discover the complexity of Los Angeles and life in general in the stunning Goodnight Paradise, a dark diamond by Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli courageously proposed by Panini comics.
In the footsteps of a homeless person
Homeless Eddie goes to a library to satisfy an essential physical need. He takes the opportunity to check his emails but does not dare to answer his son Jéronimo. By the way, he salutes a conspiracy theorist. Here is the beginning of Goodnight Paradise where, in a few boxes, the realistic and choral narrative is laid. Eddie lives on the margins of society in Los Angeles. Already difficult, his life becomes even more chaotic when he finds the body of a murdered runaway, Tessa Kurrs. He makes it his mission to find the culprits. His research leads him to the unknown and dark neighborhoods of the city of angels. 
This title will allow you to discover a fantastic screenwriter, unfortunately too unknown. Joshua Dysart has shone in superhero stories but this title is very different. Living not far from Skid Row, a neighborhood where homeless people are very numerous, this humanist author did not stay locked in his house but he chose to get involved in his city by helping associations. This experience having deeply touched him, he wanted to make a book out of it. It will be Goodnight Paradise. Dysart makes us enter the daily life of the marginalized without embellishing this life. Their vocabulary is very raw: "I haven't shit for days". We are more at Bukowski than Steinbeck. All these marginals know each other, talk to each other and even help each other. We penetrate a community with its codes to survive. Dysart had already collaborated with the Italian cartoonist Alberto Ponticelli in Emergency Level 3, he talked about his experience in an NGO. His style can be surprising. The faces are quite square and waxy. Colorization gives the impression that each surface is dirty while the past is cleaner by flat areas. Images turn the stomach while yet we see no violence and at the end of the volume, it is impossible to imagine another artist on this title.
The portrait of people apart
The documentary aspect gradually fades to highlight human beings because Goodnight is above all the portrait of different inhabitants of Venice Beach. Eddie is a Christ figure who sacrifices himself and gives everything to others. He is a regular on the street but is collapsed upon discovering the girl in a dumpster. Even so, Eddie is not a good detective. He is so clumsy that we fear for him. Like Eddie, the story is erratic and free. The subject changes completely when his son arrives. He goes around his world but is never interested in his life. It is both splendid and tragic. Through various encounters, Eddie discovers Tessa's past. In chapter two, the runaway has just arrived in Venice Beach and seems happy but we are devastated as she abandons her medication, starts cracking and gradually loses touch with reality. Beyond this group, Dysart portrays Venice Beach, a very mixed neighborhood where two worlds coexist without crossing each other: the included and the excluded. Even though there is a shared space on the beach, the two communities have only sins in common: alcohol and drugs. Goodnight Paradise is a shock of reading, a unique moment through a thriller. This investigation is a classic way to enter into a much larger project presenting deep characters, unknown backgrounds and a city fractured in two. We will have the final word of the investigation but especially faces will remain in your mind for a very long time after closing the book. If this column interested you, you can find a chronicle of Emergency Level 3 from the same screenwriter and The 7 Deadly Sins from the same publishing house.
