Falling Sky

CatFang · Falling Sky

Story / Art by Ben Dickson

Here is a little indie gem I have brought in for you. The perfect downer after the shiny sugar-rush of superheroes that I know you have all been gorging on recently…yes, I see that copy of Final Crisis there behind your back, young man!

I first discovered Falling Sky a couple of weeks ago and I really enjoyed it. Well, actually “enjoy” sounds too bland and positive - it probably needs some sort of Lewis Carroll like construction that somehow combines “moved, fascinated, appalled, pleased, weirdly satisfied…” It is an memorable piece of work, idiosyncratic, powerful, and, scarily, it is very, very plausible.

But, before I get into all of that I better tell you what it’s about. Falling Sky is an 80-page countdown to an unavoidable, catastrophic asteroid impact on the Earth, due to strike 48 hours from the start of the book. The governments of the world have known about this for a long time, as government do they have made preparations. Those preparations did not involve protecting, or even telling, the public.

The central premise of the story twists around the fact that due to unforeseen circumstances one of those down to be taken to safety finds himself left among the excluded masses. The one *tiny* criticism I might make is the initial set up of this situation and the resolution that gets the story going, seems a bit unbelievable against the very realist nature of the rest of the rest of the piece. However, you will forgive it that because it still serves to illustrate a great point about what we think is important in our lives and, something which always does it for me, explorations of apparent power and control.

The reality of the human dynamics is brilliant, as is the contrast of our petty concerns set against astronomical threat - the story has interesting things to say about what we cling to or focus on that makes us human and think our lives have meaning, and the incomprehnsible fact of our own mortality. There is a political commentary threaded through the story that touches on questions about freedom, liberty, safety, betrayal, protection and class, to name a few.

Once it gets underway the story is taut and well paced and makes excellent use of the rhythm effect from the countdown to the inevitable. It is nihilistic and yet strangely cathartic.

The art is an expressionistic take on photo manipulation. Born of necessity (see the link to the author’s site at the end for more details) it turns out to suit the story perfectly and gives everything a haunting, delicate quality.

There is a certain grace to the simplicity of the art that lends itself well to discussion of the will to survive and the courage to surrender. I loved the way the limited sepia colour palette recalls dried leaves and the effect that gives people a kind of chalk corpse outline like they are already dead. The “halo effect” around the human characters intensifies the focus as many of the shots are very stark, just a person, encased in a kind of “bubble” that protects them from a scratchy web of static in the background.

Have a look over at Ben Dickson’s website where you can read the first 16 pages (of 80) as a sample, along with info on the art techniques, the soundtrack, a “making of” and lots of other tasty bits and pieces.

Bats – Ben is on Smallzone if you want to contact him about getting copies in.

norsefire1

sounds very cool and anything slighty hints at being apocalyptic or post apocalyptic fiction interests me. a title i will look into for definite, thanks for bringing that to our attentions catfang.

Batmanuel

I will have to check this one out. nice one, always nice to be introduced to something new.