The Light #1 (of 5)

Nathan Edmondson & Brett Weldele

The Light is a new mini-series from Image Comics that just saw its first issue sell out at the distributor, but is still available in some comic shops.  It's not surprising that it sold out really, as it has quite a neat little horror hook.  Anybody who looks at light, be it a light bulb, computer screen, television or whatever, suddenly burns up from the inside out.  So in a small town, Coyle tries to keep his daughter safe from the threat that is killing his friends and neighbors, by avoiding looking at anything illuminating.  But it's kind of hard to avoid actually seeing something until it's too late, so the characters are basically blind as they fumble in their quest to find safety.  It's a really cool idea, one I'm not sure where the creators are going with, with any number of social commentaries they could be pulling out of the premise of man vs. technology.  Brett Weldele (The Surrogates) has a sketchy sort of art that I noticed spreading through comics with Ben Templesmith's 30 Days of Night from IDW (written by Steve Niles).  I like when Templesmith rocks this look, but to be honest, Weldele's leaves me kind of cold.  There are few panels that are very "pretty" when I can certainly say that many of Templesmith's are aesthetically pleasing in series like Fell and the aforementioned 30 Days of Night.  I feel like a lot of the art in Weldele's Light is hidden by grainy shadow and if you look at the lines of the art itself, it's kind of lackluster.  But I don't want to be too hard on the guy; It's illustrated competently and I can easily make out what is going on in what is a highly action-packed book.  Plus I must applaud his use of, well, light, in the issue.  He very smartly highlights the "lighting" of each scene in the book, right up until (and after) the light begins to do crazy things to people.  Overall, I can't say I'm very taken with this book beyond its catchy premise, but it does do things smartly.  If you can't locate a copy for yourself, you can read the first issue for free here before subsequent issues come out.