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Does it ever feel like you never really left high school?
Sam Fonseca’s graphic novel Shadowplay: Midnight School represents the horrors of high school through the monstrous and vile. The story expertly weaves narratives about depression, creativity, individuality, and the perception of adulthood. Fonseca’s art style reflects that of psychological horror greats, Junji Ito (No Longer Human) and Emil Ferris (My Favorite Thing is Monsters).
The art is surreal, often hinging on the grotesque, with intentional use of color and perspective that disturbs you in all the right ways. The first book takes readers through a world of depression and oppression at the hands of a violent and soul-sucking school system.
What Is Shadowplay: Midnight School?
Shadowplay: Midnight School follows a nameless young boy in high school. The problem is that this school is run by monsters who prey on the anxieties of the student body. Suspension means being senselessly beaten by the principal, a shadowy figure who wields a club.
Speaking up means having an iron padlock wrapped around your mouth. Yet, the students remain oblivious to the horrors that surround them, instead opting to fall in line with the monsters’ demands. In this world, failure means death.
Meanwhile, the protagonist and his classmates are haunted by reminders that they “aren’t good enough” to succeed in life. Yet, there doesn’t seem to be a way out of the school, leaving the characters in a state of limbo as they attempt to figure out if they ever left high school.
Underneath it all, though, is a glimmer of hope. The protagonist, reminded of his passions by his absent older brother, finds joy in the darkness through his love of music and cartoons. Through art, the protagonist and his classmates find strength in emotional connection and the ability to resist their oppressors.
The setting serves as a metaphor for the real-world horrors of capitalism and the deep-laden flaws of an education system that produces obedient civilians, rather than helping students leave the world better than they found it.
The Art — Where Poetry Meets Horror
Initially, the world of Shadowplay: Midnight School is steeped in darkness and shadows. Fonseca’s art style relies on jagged line work that draws attention to each uncanny stroke and curve of the characters.
No space is left blank and no corner is un-haunted by creatures that lurk throughout the school. Facial features and expressions are gruesomely exaggerated, with bulging eyes and slack jaws. Each panel moves with a quick and dynamic energy through the early sections of the novel.
But then, something changes. When music and art are reintroduced into the life of the protagonist, so is color. The lines become softer and the features of the characters clearer, drawing inspiration from the classic cartoons of the 80’s and 90’s.
The narrative through-line in Fonseca’s art goes beyond the surface-level analysis art brings vibrancy and meaning to the world. Rather, the use of color and style in Shadowplay: Midnight School emphasizes the stark difference between adulthood and childhood. The rounder, more cartoony style of later sections in the story symbolizes the hope and beauty that surround our formative years; something that is later lost once a stronger emphasis on responsibility and practicality in adulthood.
Themes Of Educational Flaws
A major turn in the novel comes when the characters find the remains of art and instruments within the desolate halls of the school. It is revealed that the arts have long since been defunded at the school, with societal changes and expectations turning the staff into monsters. The outside world is no better, with so-called “adult issues that are actually important” (127) 1Fonseca, Sam. Shadowplay: Midnight School. Top Shelf Productions. 2025. such as war, poverty, domestic violence, and the cost of higher education consistently looming in the background.
Shadowplay: Midnight School reveals the hidden truth about the American education system. The lack of funding and looming presence of capitalism has turned a place that was once teeming with life and creativity into a literal prison. The school is designed to strip students of their individuality and force them to conform to society’s expectations about work and profit.
Success is defined vaguely by the school staff, who often degrade and punish students for falling out of line. Though never explicitly stated, that success is hinted at being at the mercy of a larger corporation and creating profit on behalf of someone else.
Fonseca emphasizes the way schools are used as pipelines for a degraded workforce. Young creatives and free-thinkers are dissuaded from pursuing their dreams in favor of something more “practical.”
Scholarships to college are used incentives that can be revoked at any time, for any reason, and poverty looms as an always-present reality. However, that is not the purpose of schools. At the end of the novel, the narrator proclaims:
“A real school should inspire and help students become the ones who will save this world!” (251)1
One perspective that is lacking from Fonseca’s graphic novel (perhaps to appear in the sequel Midnight Oil) is that of the school staff. The lack of funding for the arts and the persistent corporatization affect teachers and administrators as much as it does students.
The root of the staff’s literal and figurative monstrosity is never fully discussed by the main characters, nor do they express the desire to fix this problem.
Significance For Educators & Activists
As a teacher, I feel the threads of this story run through my daily life. Working at the high school I attended as a student, I, too, feel like I never left high school. The emphasis on obedience and standardization as a marker of success still permeates the American education system.
Scholarships and careers are dangled over students’ heads, weaponizing their achievements into hindrances that prevent them from finding their true passions and identities. Just as the anxieties about success haunt the characters, I also see the ways in which the system tells students, “you are not good enough,” instead of, “you are always improving.”
It is unfortunate that there has never been a better time for this graphic novel to be published. With continued threats of budget cuts to schools and grants, growing censorship, rising unemployment rates, and attacks on free speech; Fonseca speaks to a very real set of horrors that pervade our society.
With the American education system under direct attack from the government, parent groups, and even students, it can often feel like school is hell. But as the novel itself states, the purpose of school has never been to create gears for the wheel of capitalism.
For many educators, the goal is to give students the tools and knowledge to explore their passions and leave the world better than they found it. Yet, outside barriers continually prevent schools from serving their true purpose.
Of course, the novel also shows the avenues for hope and resistance through the universality of art. It serves as a reminder that, within despair, there are opportunities for joy and connection– but only if you are willing to fight for them.
The Lasting Impact of Shadowplay: Midnight School
Shadowplay: Midnight School highlights the value of fandom and popular culture, both in and out of the education system. Fonseca draws attention to how art inspires and connects people despite their circumstances. Yet, popular culture is devalued by the education system (a subject I feel strongly about) and is readily dismissed by adults and peers as childish.
Still, popular culture remains a source of inspiration for students around the world to make the world a better, brighter place. School does not need to be the only source of art and beauty in the world. Shadowplay: Midnight School is not only highly recommended for comic fans and artists, as the art style itself is a balancing act between the poetic and gruesome, but also for educators and activists seeking a deeper perspective on the deeply flawed systems we live in.
As the series continues, I look forward to Fonseca’s commentary on other aspects of life, such as the workforce and politics, as further systems of oppression.
Shadowplay: Midnight School is published by Top Shelf Productions, with a sequel Midnight Oil in production.
Footnotes
Footnotes
- 1Fonseca, Sam. Shadowplay: Midnight School. Top Shelf Productions. 2025.