Review: Sky Lights
"And as it happens, I too am unable to scream."
Steve Walker has the same dream every night. A desert. Night time. He is surrounded by people. They are all looking up into the sky... but they have no eyes or mouths.
Then the saucers come. A bright light explodes...
Formerly a stuntman, Steve now works in a call centre. But the dreams disturb his sleep and he is late for work too many times... He also loses his girlfriend. Feeling disconnected from his own life, he rents a car and heads out into the desert beyond L.A. with no particular destination in mind.
He comes across a group of people camped out in the middle of nowhere and asks them what they are doing. They are reluctant to tell him until he reveals that his dreams brought him to this location. A native American woman called Anna explains that they are trying to communicate telepathically with extraterrestrials. Her young daughter Sky takes him by the hand, welcoming him to the group. Unsure but willing to keep an open mind, Steve joins them.
As night falls they gather round the camp fire and begin a guided meditation. The little girl Sky runs off a few feet from the group. Anna and Steve follow at a distance. Sky stops and looks up.
A strange light appears in the sky. Two more join it. A strange energy bursts forth, knocking Steve to the ground...
Sky Lights by writer/artist Keith Morange is a UFO mystery involving flying saucers, secret government organisations and mysterious children with psychic powers. If you loved The X-Files you're in familiar territory here, with the same aura of free-floating dread, an unearthly threat lurking just out of sight. The thrill of the unknown is accompanied by a creeping paranoia, turning the everyday world into nightmare territory.
The story builds up slowly, following Steve as his ordinary life gradually disintegrates into a disjointed series of bizarre encounters. Morange details this with atmospheric images and a sketchy but on-point style that captures both the mundane and the extraordinary with equal skill. He uses a subtly shifting restrained soft colour pallete that conveys understated changes in tone throughout the story.
Events are building up towards some kind of grand revelation and there is no escaping his part in what is to come, but still many questions remain unanswered. Not least of these is: who can he trust?
His instinct is to run... but how do you escape something you cannot understand?
Sky Lights on Webtoons
Zak Webber
Twitter - @sfcomicartist / Instagram - @sfcomicartist
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