The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television is a graphic novel by Koren Shadmi and published by Humanoids Life Drawn.
I got my copy from my friend Dave. He runs Cosmic Comics Belleville which has become my second home of sorts. Great place to meet great people and get great things!
I read the Twilight Man in one sitting. Honestly, it reads like a Twilight Zone episode. Rod is on an airliner speaking to the woman seated with him about his life and “show business.” He discusses his wartime experience as a paratrooper in World War II. An odd place to start on a piece about the birth of television, but highly relevant to Mr. Serling’s later triumphs and failures of creativity. I found his post-war frustration scenes especially poignant as I and several of my family members have battled the same.
The story of Rod Serling’s creative ups and downs follows in breathtaking scenes of whimsy and anger. His early on again, off again successes with Playhouse 90 and other television anthologies of the period crescendo with his masterpiece, The Twilight Zone. But with each peak, come valleys. Serling’s downward path was paved by The Night Gallery, over which he had no creative control. Finally ending with working bits for commercial sponsors. The selfsame industry he railed against publicly as censorship in favor of commercialism and earned him his “Angry Young Man of Television” moniker.
Koren Shadmi, both storyteller and artist for this masterpiece, captures the mood of the era with his gray tones and angled artistry. I must now track down a copy of Rise of the Dungeon Master. Written by David Kushner, and illustrated by Koren Shadmi, is an earlier graphic novel profiling Gary Gygax, the founder of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
In summary, The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television, is an outstanding read and an eye-opener into the mind and life one of America’s great storytellers, Rod Serling. Oh, and, yes, there is a Twilight Zone-style ending.
P.S. Check with Dave at Cosmic Comics to buy a copy. He’ll have it, and if he doesn’t, he’ll get it for you.
