Writer Stuart Moore has taken some fairly universal themes of adolescence—being the new kid at school, abusive relationships, self-esteem issues, bullying, authority figures—and deftly placed them against the exotic backdrop of outer space. But instead of overshadowing the drama, the high-stakes setting of the first colony on the moon only serves to ratchet up the tension, and makes the trials and tribulations of Earthlight's characters all the more riveting.

Add to this, illustrator Christopher Schons' stunning artwork—vividly portraying not only the human elements of the story, but also rendering the architecture and science of the moon colony with amazing realism—and you've got one gripping read.

The story of Earthlight is easily relatable and absolutely fantastic all at the same time. Not an easy task, but one pulled off with aplomb by Moore and Schons.

~Bryce P. Coleman, Editor

The year: 2068 A.D. The place: Earthlight, the first international moon colony. It's a domed complex of cold steel and carbon nanotubes, sterile and metallic, run by ironclad rules and regulations. Population: 228 adults—and 42 kids. Earthlight is a very expensive and controversial project, and life there is tense and difficult. Safety regulations must be obeyed to the letter. And the kids' parents are all under enormous pressure, which both contributes to the burden they place on their children and means they have very little family time in their schedules. So the kids must find their own way most of the time...

And sometimes, they get into trouble—as in the case of a recent catastrophic accident where five adults and three children died. So the U.N. hires Aaron Cole, a new administrator, to oversee Earthlight. Cole's wife, Leyla, is to establish and operate Earthlight Academy, the colony's first organized school—with their fourteen-year-old son, Damon, as one of the first students.

The high-tech, high-stress setting of Earthlight's lunar colony reflects and magnifies the problems of regular kids today. Like their parents, these teens must forge their own forms of survival and cooperation—if they're to succeed in this harsh new world.

Stuart Moore(writer): Stuart is an acclaimed comic book writer and novelist, whose credits include Firestorm, Justice League Adventures and JSA: Classified for DC, Wolverine for Marvel, Giant Robot Warriors for AiT/PlanetLar and Stargate: Atlantis. Moore was also a comics editor for Vertigo and Marvel Knights. He won the Will Eisner awared for Best Editor 1996 and the Dan Thompson Award for Favorite Editor 1999.

Read an in-depth interview with Stuart on Newsarama.

Christopher Schons (artist): Christopher is an artist/illustrator/designer based out of Chicago. Before working on Earthlight, he assisted on Lucifer for Vertigo Comics and Chosen at Dark Horse. He also runs an online store with his girlfriend, and spends too much time playing Guitar Hero.

Damon Cole:
He's the new kid on the satellite. Level-headed, for the most part, Damon is just hoping to find his place in his new surroundings. Not just an outsider, but son of the new boss and the new teacher. Talk about pressure.

Lise Doure:
Pretty, popular, yet oddly reserved. She sympathizes a bit with Damon because her family's been on the moon for a comparatively short time—only three years—and she can remember what it was like to be the new girl.

Xan Chiang:
A very forceful, popular kid in the colony. He's relatively broad-shouldered and muscular, though thin from the lesser gravity. Xan was born on the moon and considers it his only home, and he has strong dislike for kids born on Earth, who he refers to as "Weeders."

Aaron Cole:
Damon's father, the newly installed Chief Administrator of the Earthlight colony. A career politician, prone to dressing in suits, he's a large and imposing figure. Aaron is stern, but very warm and human with his family. The colonists distrust Cole as a political appointee and see him as a wheeler-dealer or, at times, an outright liar.

Leyla Cole:
Damon's mother, founder and sole teacher at Earthlight Academy, the kids' newly formed school. Slight, pretty, and willowy, but with an iron will, Leyla is British, which makes her an oddity on the moon. England is not a partner in the Earthlight program, having sworn off manned spaceflight decades before.

Check out the Glyph award nominations for Earthlight!

"...I can assure you that Earthlight will appeal to both the traditional manga and comic audiences."
~CBG Xtra review by Billy Aguiar


"Moore's tale is a coming of age story set in a larger narrative of speculative science fiction and socio-political futurism. Moore gives Damon's trials and tribulations both poignancy and edge. His observations on technology and society are plausible and engaging—just what sci-fi needs to make it interesting and relevant...

...[Mr. Schons] is a virtuoso at drawing sci-fi tech, gear, sets, and environments that are more science than they are fiction and fantasy. His character drawing is expressive and hyper dramatic, but his art can be subtle and human."
~Leroy Douresseaux, Comic Book Bin



In space nobody can hear you angst… I think....

...It’s the year 2068 and we’re visiting Earthlight Lunar Colony… three months after an “accident” which seemingly has killed three. This may mean nothing, but as the book ends this “incident” may mean everything… then again maybe not. Whet your whistle yet?

Anyway it’s 2068 and newbie to space life Damon Cole has just arrived on this international “melting pot” of scientific discovery and global tensions aka Earthlight Lunar Colony. There he finds good old fashioned teen angst (which he’ll suffer a bit since his mom is this totally hot female teacher, and his dad is the Chief Admin of the whole colony) and hatred of those different than you (in this case good old fashioned Mobile Suit Gundam hatred between spacers and “weeders” from Earth) in the form of a violent punk boy who likes to harass our man here while he whacks around his girlfriend (if Damon so becomes her new boyfriend after the old one… I don’t know… falls out of an airlock or explodes or whatever… then good riddance)? Yeah, his days in the colony isn’t going to be a good one… for him, but for you that’s something different.

First off notice how beautifully drawn this title is. Artist Christopher Schons really pulls out a nice tour de force of visual splendor and manga beauty that just looks good.

Stuart Moore, as the writer, takes what could have been a simple teen angst in space book and gives it a bit more depth which makes it more than just a cookie cutter also-ran sci-fi teen epic, from the grave tidings of its opening volley through the relationship woes of newcomer Cole to Earthlight, to a shocking end when one of the cast turns out to be a “terrorist” and holds the world hostage… but is his/her reason for this really what he/she says it is? Or is there more to this than meets the eye? The book ends with you wondering just what the heck is going to happen next… which should bring you right back here when the next volume hits wanting more...

...4 petitions for a monument to James “Scotty” Doohan on the moon out of 5.

~Anime Boredom review by David Rasmussen 20th Mar 07