The Sacrifice of Darkness

Gr 8 Up–Emotionally broken miner Hiram Hightower escapes the darkness underground to touch the sun, sending the world, and family, he left behind into darkness. In this Black-centered fantasy, Hiram’s son, Joshua, becomes the town pariah, mocked and scorned by all, the blood red crease left behind by the sun reminding the world of what it has lost. Scientists work tirelessly for a solution that would return the sun to the sky while the local governing Corona Council realizes that the rapacious mining of a fictional substance called flareon has come as a detriment to humanity. Joshua is befriended by Claire, a young woman whose kind heart cuts through the incessant public shaming that Joshua endures. With each passing year, mounting hatred against the Hightowers forces the Corona Council to demand a blood payment for his father’s actions. When Joshua refuses, he sets off with Claire, now his wife, to search for an answer in the sky. Love, culpability, and family bonds converge in this graphic adaptation of Gay’s short story “We Are the Sacrifice of Darkness.” The comic’s pacing uniquely reads like a graphic short story, moving fluidly between Hiram’s early life and that of Joshua’s life after his father’s death. Kirby swathes Hiram’s pages in the colors of a sunset, visually connoting the impending end of his life, while Joshua’s sections remind the reader of a sunrise. Bold orange hues combined with warm colors foreshadow hope in a new day.