Side Project - A Light Without Heat

So this mini project comes about through a failed anthology pitch. I was pitching to a tarot anthology and was trying out for the Moon card. 

This was planned for about 7 pages, but now that I look at it, it could be easily longer lol... (Shorts are hard for us) 

I'm quite fond of this project, maybe I'll include it in one of the stretch goals :D <---- has way too many stories and comics to work on .... lllorz

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Here's a little character intro and summary! 

 Characters:

Iah (Genderfree with no pronoun preferences / Pansexual)  -  A race craft (space racing craft) pilot who’s never grounded. It’s hard to tell if they care about anything at all. An enigma even to their family.   

Herleif (He / Demisexual) – Iah’s navigator.  Herleif is a cynic and a little mean spirited. He hides his true intentions under a pretense, and secretly longs for human connections.  

Summary:

The comic opens with Iah and Herleif on a practice run to familiarize themselves with the race course. As the spacecraft speeds through the void, Herlief becomes increasingly stressed trying to navigate for Iah. The thought of collision at high speed with space debris/astroids pushes Herleif over the edge. He has been feeling this way ever since he and Iah became partners. Iah notices Herleif’s distress, but to Herlief’s dismay, Iah over-rides and shuts down the navigation system and engine completely, leaving the craft to drift aimlessly in darkness. Herlief swears and tries to revive the system with shaky hands and Iah takes this moment to kiss him. The navigator is shocked but soon succumbs to Iah’s gentle gesture. When they part, Herlief is surprised to find that he’s no longer shaking even when the two of them might be bound for certain destruction. Herlief smirks and claims that this is madness. He thinks to himself how Iah is like the moon, mysteriously illuminating the dark, but not enough to burn.   

Symbols:

The moon to me can mean a period of wandering towards an end goal that is not easily visible. The traveler is not left completely in the dark but with moonlight as guidance, even if that light can bestow illusions or even madness. But for some, that heatless light can be a comfort in the darkest of nights.  

The darkness of space represents an aspect of Herleif that he is trying to ignore. The artificial light of the spacecraft chases away the darkness but also perpetuates the ignored fear, making the shadows deeper. When all the systems are turned off, Herleif is forced to face that fear and uncertainty and give up control. Before the darkness overwhelms him, the moonlight, in the form of his lover Iah, illuminates him. A light that is not brilliant, but is what he needs as he continues his self-searching journey.  

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I also had given some thought to character costume design. Since they are racers, they would have different sponsors which would appear on their suits. I also tried to design the suit so it could enable the racers to survive in outer space for a short period of time in case of any accidents or system failure. 

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This story, like the last one, is also based on a dream. Many of my stories are.