Skin&Earth: Where the Music World Meets the Comic Book World

On April 11th, Canadian singer-songwriter Lights posted a cryptic photo to her social media platforms. The photo consists almost entirely of her legs, where her right knee wrapped in some sort of cloth bandage and she’s holding seven fingers down. The caption reads, “A new age begins. Seven.” This sent her fans into a frenzy, with countless tweets and Instagram posts hoping that the follow up to Lights’ 2014 album Little Machines would be coming sooner rather than later. The next day, Lights posted again, this time showcasing her now infamous red hair with the caption, “Six.” The countdown continued everyday with confusing and interesting posts from the songstress, leading up to the grand reveal a week after her initial post. The grand reveal came in the form of a video, announcing an album and accompanying comic book entitled Skin&Earth.

A self professed comic book nerd, Lights has named comics as a constant source of inspiration in her career. From her music videos to her fashion, this inspiration has always been evident; it almost seems as though this album and comic book pairing was an inevitable step for the songstress. She even created an alter ego for herself back in 2008, named “Captain Lights”.

While the concept of Skin&Earth may be new to Lights, the idea of a comic book where she – or an alter ego of hers is the star – isn’t too far removed from some of Lights’ previous endeavors. As a writer, singer, illustrator, and producer, Lights was fully involved in every aspect of the project. After teaching herself the inner workings of what it takes to create a comic book, she got busy. She not only wrote every song on the album, but wrote every word and drew every bit of the comic books as well.

As for the comics themselves, they follow a woman named En, who with bright red hair bears a striking resemblance to Lights herself, and is clearly some sort of alternate version of the singer. En exists in a post-apocalyptic land ruled by corporations and corruption. The world seems to have lost all hope, but that doesn’t stop En from searching for it. Through trials and tribulations, romance and fantasy, and isolation and adventure, En searches for her purpose in a seemingly hopeless world. In total, there are 6 issues of Skin&Earth, each of which reference different songs, going in chronological order with the album. The first issue references “Intro” and “Skydiving”, the second issue references “Until the Light” and “Savage”, the third issue references “New Fears” and “Morphine”, the fourth issue references “We Were Here” and “Kicks”, the fifth issue references “Giants”, “Moonshine”, and “Interlude”, and the sixth and final issue references “Magnetic Field”, “Fight Club”, and “Almost Had Me”.

Musically, Lights still very much operates in a pop world, but has somewhat put the light, synth driven production from 2014’s Little Machines on the back burner as she experiments with a handful of different sounds on Skin&Earth. From the trap influences on “We Were Here”, the rock leaning “Savage” with drums courtesy of Josh Dun from twenty one pilots, and the tropical house flavored “Until the Light” and “Fight Club”, Lights manages to keep her signature catchy hooks and larger than life choruses, while still incorporating a slew of new sounds and influences.

Even if there were no accompanying comic books, Skin&Earth would still be an interesting and fun listen. With the addition of the comic books however, another layer of depth and complexity is added to the songs. It gives them an even greater sense of purpose and meaning. The same thing goes for the comics, as they are a varied and complete body of work that can stand on their own, without the addition of an album. In tandem with the album however is when the comics become more than just a story; they become a multifaceted and layered experience. What makes Skin&Earth so special is that while both the album and the comics work on their own, something rare and truly special happens when they come together. Lights has created a multidimensional universe that seamlessly connects music and comics, making for arguably one of the most compelling and diverse projects in pop music today.