Title card, "Late Night"
One particular Saturday night, Brian is home alone again after his girlfriend leaves to hang out with her friends. Brian soon calls his own friends, Chris and Tom, who come to his aid to help with the most important task ever made: buying pizza. Although it made seem like a simple task, things quickly go awry, and Chris and Tom begin to contemplate if it was really worth it. Or something. Meanwhile, Brian faces challenges of his own: choosing what show to binge. And maybe psychosis.
Late Night is an adventure-ish comical story about ten characters who slowly discover that they have magical powers. Also involved are a robot and an evil kung-fu dojo. As of this page's update, the comic is at it's upcoming 53rd and 54th pages. It has four chapters so far, with each chapter being twelve pages apiece.
The comic began it's run on May 1st. It was created by Sockrocks. It is not the first NaNo comic (that title belongs to Calliope Abroad,) or even the second (that's T(RC)DoE,) but might be the most linear. As with most stories, Late Night has a beginning, and it will have an end.
----OMG SPOILERS AHEAAD----
Format
The comic is set up in standard format. Each page is twelve panels, with not much variation between them. Due to the uploading server the comic uses being unable to upload files over 1 MB, each page is split into two halves and then published with the appearance of a whole page.
Each page of the comic is created on notebook paper. This is because it initially began in a small journal full of lined paper. As the journal was filled, different paper had to be used, and I decided to stick with lined paper to give it some kind of consistency.
Characters
Brian
The slacker on/off protagonist. His hair is half emo - half indie. Is in love with pizza more than life itself, but too lazy to ever get the pizza more than, like, once a month. His two best friends are Chris and Tom, and his girlfriend is Katie.
a half page from the comic.
Brian is unique in that his ability isn't really finely determined. Could it be from puns? Could it be from nearby objects? No one knows.
He is often against powers much bigger and stronger than himself, such as ninjas, highly trained super soldiers, and empty pizza boxes.
Brian met his girlfriend in high school, and it seems that he is only in college because of her. His major and future plans are unknown.
His parents' careers are unknown, although they do seem to be somewhere in the middle class. He has a now fourteen-year-old sister named Amber.
Chris
Literally just Chris. He has to eat copious amounts of Doritos(TM) or bad things will happen. He also plays the drums, and was in a band called Idioautomatic for three seconds in high school. Too lazy to put on pants most days.
Chris is Brian's second side. The two have known each other since grade school, and each considers the other a good friend. His ability is unknown as of yet.
another half page from the comic.
Most information about his upbringing is unknown, although it has been revealed that his father was a police officer.
Chris's friend Tom is someone he has known since birth, but not hung around a lot until high school and college. They are very close.
Although Chris has the appearance of a skateboarder, he's never skateboarded. He's more of a table hockey guy.
Chris acts as both the voice of reason and the comic relief, which are two types I bet you thought you'd never see be the same person.
Also, Chris has a large collection of beach-themed T-shirts, which he wears ironically, considering they are nowhere near a beach, and he doesn't know how to swim.
Tom
Chris's foil. Tom is of an average smartness, average height, and average thought process. He and Chris have known each other since preschool. In high school, Tom actively participated in marching band, and still does in college. He can play the flute like something out of Jethro Tull.
Tom is a regular person. Really, he is. There is nothing off or weird about him. Even though he is completely normal, he is still more interesting than Brian.
Tom spends most of his days in the fraternity house he lives in, which we never get to see because he's almost never in the actual comic. Although he's one of the key characters in the story, much of his actual life is not known.
The gap in his teeth is from a dodgeball incident.
The Commander
A mystery in and of himself. Who does he work for? What does he do? Is he a good or bad dude? No one knows. Alivia seems to listen to him, though, so he can't be that bad...unless she's evil.
Confirmed Bad Dude. With great hair. It's kind of a rule, in media, that all bad guys have great hair. I mean, Loki, Hans, Green Goblin a little bit...
Not really a compassionate guy, but very...driven, shall we say. He's got big dreams of world domination. His ability is unknown.
He runs the Avery Learning Center, and although he may seem like a bigshot head of everything, he's just a vice president.
It was revealed in chapter three that he and Rachel are co-conspirators. He only wears suits. His middle name is Clark, and his last name is Jones.
Katie
A vegetarian who, as Brian's girlfriend, accepts that he's just going to eat pizza every night. She speaks three languages, has had classical singing training, and there's a small chance she might be either really super evil or incredibly nice. Her best friend is Lucille.
"jerk move"
Katie was raised by her aunt for most of her childhood. Her parents perished in a car accident. Although it is not explicitly shown much, she does have a life outside of saving Brian. She is studying to be a biologist along with Lucille, but she doesn't particularly like the career.
She took a lot of karate when she was younger, and as such basically has to protect Brian whenever people beat him up. She often finds herself sucked into whatever he has planned for that day, yet can always make time for herself and her friends. She wears glasses or contacts.
She doesn't know Brian's friends very well, but was in some of the same classes as Chris in high school.
She now works in a nuclear power plant with Lucille, which is odd considering none of them know anything about nuclear reactors.
Lucille
A super good roller skater and an enthusiastic skateboarder. She has ten cats whom she knows by name. She is studying to be a biologist, and isn't very familiar with Brian's friends.
Lucille appears the least out of all of the characters. Although she isn't seen a lot, she has a whole skill set of stuff. She's very dedicated to her work, and finds it difficult straying from that to do something crazy. Even though she's more of a reserved person, she does enjoy hearing the stories Katie tells her about Brian and his endeavors.
She was raised by her mother. Her brother, Davin, is eight as of the story's beginning.
Her ability is unknown as of yet.
Rachel
A mischievious young woman who may or may not even be real. She's got a knack for manipulation, but that doesn't make her a bad person. Studying for a business degree, she's loose-lipped and quick to act. Brian is a bit infatuated with thinking that she's in love with him. Rachel is perfectly fine with him thinking this, as long as it doesn't detriment her career.
She's really into ninja things - nunchuks, red scarves that blow around precariously in the wind, beating Brian up, you know.
Her hair is bright red and doesn't have a clear end. It just keeps going and going...
It is later revealed that she works with The Commander, and that she is the head of some department. It is never explained what.
Quite a daredevil. She trained Alivia.
Loves expensive and lavish outfits.
Alivia
A student at the college and an attendant at the Avery Learning Center. Can pull a sword out of her head and slice people in half. A little weird. A little mysterious. Tolerates Brian, but wouldn't want to actually hang out with him.
If you've ever seen the show Steven Universe, Alivia is this world's equivalent to Peridot. Really. If you read the comic, just imagine all of Alivia's dialogue with Peridot's voice. Guaranteed to make your reading experience at least 5% more enjoyable.
A girl with a short haircut who excels in misdirection and facepalming. Also, roundhouse kicking anything and making weapons from brain matter. It's a long story.
She wouldn't actually slice people in half, but that doesn't mean she's never been tempted.
Hadley
Hadley is an openly agender robot (humanoid) that was created by Ava. They appear to be smarter than the rest of the group, but do not possess any mythical powers.
Brian first meets Hadley in their apartment, where they have trapped themselves under a bookshelf. Brian frees them, and Hadley quickly ushers him out.
Capable of compassion, and actually probably designed for it. Hadley is Ava's big project, although Ava herself is a friend of Hadley's. Hadley lives a normal-ish life, except for the occasional introspective wonder and breakdown of machinery. They aren't lethal...probably.
Ava
Ava (formally Ava Cleiss) is the only person in the entire comic to have a first and last name. Pretty much a mad scientist. She created Ava, whom she considers her best creation.
Always wears a lab coat because she's not exactly sure what scientists do. Most of her act is posturing, but she really did create Hadley.
Every year she goes to a science fair and enters a bag of chips with a small antenna on top of it. Every year. No one knows why. She never wins.