sunbeam

On a Sunbeam is a graphic novel by Tillie Walden and it is both visually lush, and touching in its sensitivity to its subject matter. 

Let’s take those things one at a time. The ‘graphic’ in graphic novel comes first and its fitting I think, especially in this case. Sunbeam is science fiction story set in a universe that seems to include Earth, but the area of space where this story takes place seems very remote from Earth, and remote even from planetary physics as we understand it. Little chunks of rock, sometimes with room for only a building or two, seem to float around in space, some occupied, some not. Many of these building are in need of restoration, and that’s where Mia and the rest of the crew on their fish-looking ship come in. 

 

The palette is subdued, using just 3 or 4 colors, mostly black, normally speckled with stars or star-like speckles of who knows what. Even in daytime, if there is such a thing here, star strewn skies float overhead, are glimpsed through windows and portholes, and sometimes seem to linger between two people as they talk. Often, the starscapes are strewn with twisting, colored storms of cloud and dust. The old buildings and ruins are drafted with care and an attention to perspective that makes me think they were first modeled with a program like SketchUp. 

You can just gaze at this book, at the velvety black, other-worldliness of it. Good on you Tillie Walden. 

The fiction part of the story follows our hero Mia through various stages of her life. It’s centered on her work as a new recruit on board a ship named Sunbeam as they work on building restoration and then move on the next job. The human story is based on the relationships Mai forms with her shipmates and is punctuated by her memories of her 9th grade year in boarding school--and the relationships she formed there.

Those two story lines then progress and spin together, and we see the perspective changing in both the Mia of the present and the Mia of the past. The message is clear; we’re always growing. 

And sometimes it takes growth to know when it’s time to go back to something you may have missed along the way. 

Mia is fierce, loyal, strong, sensitive, forgiving, and both spontaneous and thoughtful. When Mia hugs someone who was keeping her from someplace she desperately wanted to be, after keeping her against her will, I almost fell over.

Read this book, and gaze at the artwork.