Bright eyes: ‘Light Children’ battle for good in world created by Lynchburg author

By Casey Gillis

Published: May 14, 2008

As a kid, Andy Horner says he was always in his head, making up elaborate stories that paralleled some of his favorite childhood books, like “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Chronicles of Narnia.”

“I’m an idealist and a dreamer,” says Horner, who grew up in Roanoke and now lives in Lynchburg. “The real world always seemed so much less colorful than my imagination.”

He recently began putting those ideas down on paper, and the result is the achievement of a lifelong dream: writing his own graphic novel.

His brainchild, “Light Children,” is the tale of a subterranean world populated by people with glowing eyes. The first self-published book in the saga, called “The Invalid,” will be released in July.

The story centers on Eli, a 14-year-old orphan who was born with eyes that don’t glow, something the people in his world have never seen before. He’s immediately branded as an outsider, but, like Harry Potter and other unlikely heroes before him, Eli is destined for great things.

“He’s our Frodo,” says Horner, referencing J.R.R. Tolkein’s main character from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. “All of hope begins to center around him.”

But what’s a hero without trusty sidekicks? Eli needed a Samwise to his Frodo, a Hermione and Ron to his Harry.

Horner, now 34, gave him six, all of whom live with Eli at the Westover Lake Orphanage, a sanctuary for abandoned children born with deformities.

“They’re rejected by their parents and end up at this orphanage,” says Horner.

There, the kids’ lives are calm until something happens that changes everything.

“It’s not only their world that has changed forever,” says Horner. “It’s the whole world.”

When coming up with each child’s deformity, Horner says he tried to mix familiar abilities with new ones that would be unique to the world he created.

The results are characters like Bruno, who can generate electricity with his hands and feet, and Sybil, whose hands can produce and withstand fire. Then there’s Hortense, who has phosphorescent globes growing in her hair. Each globe is a different color, and each color does something different.

“The Invalid” introduces each of the characters and eventually becomes about Eli, initially a loner, discovering his own power and meaning in the world, as his friends begin wielding their abilities.

“It’s about friendship. It’s about sticking together,” Horner says. “These kids are damaged, these kids are struggling.  And together, they have a chance.”

A whole new world
Horner and illustrator Kyle Webster, who lives in Winston-Salem, began bringing Eli’s world to life in 2006.

The pair met five years ago, when Horner, then working at New City Media in Blacksburg, hired Webster for a commercial illustration job. After the meeting, they started talking about other interests, and Horner outlined the story of “Light Children” to Webster, who was immediately hooked.

“Without even thinking, I said, ‘Oh my God, that could be a movie,’” Webster says. “(It’s) the real deal.”

As an illustrator, Webster says a lot of people approach him with ideas for books and movies. Horner’s was the first one that stuck with him.

“It didn’t sound like anything else I’d ever heard before,” Webster says.

“When he described the environment, it has a cinematic feel. It took me back to when I was a kid, and I loved ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Lord of the Rings.’ … You could get completely lost in a world.”

After that first meeting, Horner and Webster went their separate ways until a few years later, when Webster quit his day job.

“The day I quit, I called Andy and said, ‘You know that graphic novel you were telling me about? Let’s do it,’” Webster says.

They quickly began sharing sketches and plotting out the story, which Horner says will be told as a trilogy, with each part consisting of between eight and 12 books.

Since then, they’ve only met in person five times and do most of their work through e-mail and by phone.

Horner, who now works as a marketing director at Progress Printing, writes all of the dialogue and roughly sketches out the scenes. Then he sends them to Webster for fleshing out. Sometimes, Webster says, Horner will just draw stick figures, showing where he wants to place certain characters.

“It’s very collaborative and really fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants.”

Keeping it clean
In addition to realizing his dream, Horner also had another goal: to make “Light Children” a wholesome alternative to what he says has become a “very adult, very provocative” genre.

“I believe the art has become so corrupted,” he says. “It needs a Christian influence because our children today are obsessed with graphic novels.”

Adds Webster: “Nowadays, comics are overflowing with zombies and uber-violence. I loved that this went so far beyond that.”

Horner says the stories won’t have any cursing or sexual content, but will still have the elements of classic sci fi and fantasy epics, like monsters and a war waged between good and evil.

“Very quickly, we will meet Eli’s nemesis,” he says. “But like Harry Potter, he has to grow and prepare to fight. Once he is (ready), he will wage war with his nemesis.”

Horner says he sees salvation as the theme of “Light Children” and admits that it, like so many of his favorite childhood books, is “rich with Christian subtext.”

But none of it is of the in-your-face variety.

“People can see it that way if they want,” says Webster. But “you don’t have to approach it from that point of view. I’m not a religious person, and I certainly don’t find it in any way to be overtly Christian.”
Horner says the material will be safe for teenage readers but “at the same time, it’s going to be very weird.”

And much like J.K. Rowling, who famously declared she knew how “Harry Potter” would end before she even began, Horner already has his big finish plotted out.

“I think it’s a blockbuster ending,” he says. “It’s throwing-the-ring-into-Mount-Doom big.”

For more information about “Light Children,” visit http://www.lightchildren.com.