A Piece of Night is the first weekly issue of the Argentinian Cybersix comic book series that serves as the very first introduction of the titular character, Cybersix. It is written by Carlos Trillo and illustrated by Carlos Meglia.
It was initially published and distributed in the Italian language by Eura Editoriale in 1993 and later into Spanish in Spain in 1995, and into French in 1994. It has never been officially translated into English.
Episode 1 of the animated series derives its plot and title loosely from this issue.
Summary
Adrian Seidelman is the classics literature teacher at Meridiana High School and is the object of affection by his student, Lori Anderson (also known as Lori Cadenas in the comics), who offers a sexual service but is rejected. Lori's Gang intends to beat up Adrian in retaliation but is thwarted by a rescuing colleague, Lucas Amato, and a cruising police car.
Lucas introduces himself as a struggling scientific journalist who had recently taken up the job as the new biology teacher at Meridiana High, and seeing from Adrian's books that he's interested in genetic engineering, invites him to coffee at the local Cafe. There, Lucas is inspired to reveal his secret of a mysterious woman named Cybersix and shows the photographs he had taken of her. Adrian abruptly leaves and returns to his apartment and undresses, revealing himself to actually be a cross-dressing woman and the same one as in Lucas's photographs.
Cybersix goes out into the night and hunts down creatures such as herself, resembling humans created by Doctor Von Reichter who are full of Sustenance. She needs to drink this in order to survive and pretends to be a prostitute to lure one creature's defences down and attacks him and drinks his sustenance. Full now, she returns to her apartment, dresses as Adrian Seidelman and continues working on something, either marking school papers or translating Fernando Pessoa's works.
She contemplates Lucas's infatuation with Cybersix, which makes her feel more human, of being like Pessoa who lived with multiple identities, and of being nothing but also having limitless dreams.
Publication
Spanish publication
A Piece of Night was retitled Something in the Night (Algo En La Noche) in Spain. It was published by Planeta De Agostini in 1995. It is the first of six issues released in Spain. It is written by Carlos Trillo and illustrated by Carlos Meglia, who is also credited as the cover artist.
This issue hasn't been published in Argentina.
Italian publication
A Piece of Night (Un Pezzo Di Notte) was originally published in the Italian magazine Skorpio by Eura Editoriale in 1992 and later as a special in November 1, 1993. The Italian comics has a total of 45 issues, and each volume consists of approximately 8 chapters. It is written by Carlos Trillo and illustrated by Carlos Meglia with the collaboration of Alejandro Santana and Patricia Killan.
French publication
A Piece of Night was retitled Could a Normal Man Fall in Love with a Shadow of the Night? (Un Homme Normal Peut-il Tomber Amoureux D'Un Fragment De Nuit?) in France. It was published by Editions Vents d'Ouest in 1994. The French comics has a total of 12 volumes, and each volume consists of approximately 16 chapters. It is written by Carlos Meglia and illustrated by Carlos Meglia. Translation by Danielle Coste. Lettering by Yvan Jacquet.
Character debuts (in order of appearance)
Issues
- For the list of comic issues, see List of Issues.
Trivia
- The French chapter title is a quote from Lucas Amato's journal.
- The roles of being the newly hired teacher is switched from the animated series, with Lucas being new and Adrian having already had the job, presumably for a while.
- Lucas calls Adrian "boy", signifying that Adrian, and in turn Cybersix, is younger than Lucas.