Light Carries On is a haunting love story that surreptitiously defies your tired expectations to surprise you with genuine empathy, healing and joy.
Light Carries On
Ray Nadine
Dark Horse Books
May 16, 2023
Light Carries On opens with Leon, our romantic lead, simmering with dissatisfaction. He’s a guy who knows what he wants, and standing unyielding before him is yet another example of the universe conspiring against him. “Goddamit,” he groans, dispensing a banana-flavored icy beverage into his domed Slurpee cup, “Why’s cherry gotta be out….” To add insult to injury, as he’s walking home with his 22 ounces of disappointment, an errant biker slams into him. He drops his digital camera, shattering his sole source of income while his disability compensation from the Office of Veterans Affairs is delayed. But if it wasn’t for that sidewalk-hogging a-hole, he would have never gone to his mother’s antique store to nab a used film camera, and he never would have met Cody.
Cody is a punk rocker still stinging from his last relationship. From the moment Leon and Cody meet, they are practically inseparable. They both are Chicago natives, they both love music, they’re both gay and they both frequent 7-11 for their Slurpee fix. Though, when it comes to Slurpee flavors, Cody doesn’t play favorites. He instead fills his vessel with a little bit from each nozzle to create a concoction colloquially known as a “suicide.” He admits it tastes terrible. Of course, Leon and Cody have their differences, too; for instance, Leon is far more tech-savvy, and Cody died in 1977.
Ray Nadine’s Light Carries On is a ghost story with all the usual mechanics. Through a chain of mere coincidences, Leon ends up with a camera Cody was haunting. Learning of Cody’s plight, Leon takes it upon himself to sleuth out how Cody died as a means of helping him pass on to whatever comes next.
I mean, that’s what happens kind of, but that is not what Light Carries On is about. Frankly, Leon helping Cody solve the mystery of his death is the least compelling aspect of Light Carries On. The story doesn’t prioritize planting misleading clues and red herrings for Cody’s cause of death so there can be this big, flashy reveal. Instead, Light Carries On revels in quiet moments: a city walk, a shared playlist, a trip to the planetarium, those small pleasures the world owes us for all of the bother of having to live in it.
What Nadine does with Light Carries On is not change the form of your standard ghost story. Instead, they rejigger its function. Most ghost stories center around this idea of a ghost having “unfinished business.” It is as if a spirit can’t rest in peace with those last few uncrossed items on their to-do lists. Once they have accomplished those outstanding tasks with their haunted assistants, their lives are complete. They can essentially cease to be while their hosts live the rest of their lives with a greater appreciation of life’s inherent value.
But what about the dead people with unstarted business? As a queer punk rocker in the 70s, Cody had no clue what a full life would look like for him, so he avoided making plans. Then before he knew what he wanted in life, death took the choice away from him. It’s sad, and it’s unfair. Lucky for Cody, Leon – a Black, queer kid in the present – knows something about unfairness.
Ray Nadine’s cartooning in Light Carries On is like their storytelling—straightforward. There are no frills or subversions, just a sequential representation of how things are for Cody and Leon. That frankness allows us to fully relate to and trust what they are going through as characters. The artistry speaks through the specificity of Nadine’s art. They depict the streets of Chicago with a reverent literalness. The art reminds you that this story, which is fiction, contains truths. You can go to Chicago and see The Bean, eat at Svea Restaurant in Andersonville, or just kill time with a cute guy with freckles listening to My Chemical Romance and learn what it means to be alive.
Contrary to standard protocol, I will spoil a major plot point. In the case of Light Carries On, I feel it is just as important to tell you what this story is not as what it is. Cody did not die by suicide. Though suicide is brought up as a topic of discussion and possibility, it is quickly nixed by Cody. This is not a story about the afterlife of a person who wanted to die. This is a story of a person who wanted to live and wasn’t given the opportunity during his lifetime. Light Carries On is a redemption story, but it’s not Cody that needs to be redeemed. Or Leon. Or any one person. It is the circumstances.
Light Carries On is a lowkey ghost story. It quietly yet exquisitely blends elements of the supernatural and the mundane, downplaying the plot’s mystery to heal our relationship with the mystery of the universe. So much meaning and purpose in life comes from our relationship with expectations. Leon went to 7-11 with the expectation of having a Cherry Slurpee. That minor disappointment underscored the more significant blows in his life – his mental health, his career, his love life… It all felt like the universe telling him his worth. Cody, on the other hand, trained himself to live without expectations. How can he be dissatisfied if he doesn’t even know what his Slurpee will taste like? Light Carries On reminds us what we need for a life well-lived is a life well-loved. Until we can all get that, then we all deserve a second chance.
