Caleb Smith Digital Media and Design
Martian Darkness
Pencil, Ink, Adobe Illustrator
Comics are a niche medium and have been ever since their creation. They have been a huge influence in my life and serve a vital role in both art and storytelling. With this, I wanted to play on to the aspects of both horror and science fiction, while providing a sense of realism that pertains to the aspects of both technology and human interaction. Technology is a concept that provides limitless opportunities for both the real world and narrative functions. The story presented in the comic captures that, by setting it in an advanced human society two hundred years in the future. Humanity has traveled across the entirety of the solar system, and have created new homes on Mars, Titan, and Europa. Despite this, the social cliques of the world isolate themselves, refusing to advance as a unified species.
In this world, technology transcends past its barriers and moves to the biological, by altering the genetic structure of a living organism, particularly humans. This new technology is revolutionary, by emitting an undiscovered type of radiation, one that manipulates and alters genetic sequences, something that has never been seen before. This, in turn, creates a new species entirely of “vampires,” ones that while horrific in appearance, can potentially live for hundreds of years by consuming the energy from others. Here the hubris of man is identified, becoming two-fold in the excess of human curiosity, and the potential dangers of technology within human grasp. This, in turn, creates horror and suspense for the protagonists of the story, as they along with the reader, attempt to unravel the mystery behind these vampires and their presence on Mars.
