Ty and Burger have been best friends all their lives and, having recently graduated from High School, they decided to take a year off before starting college in the hopes of getting a jump start on their life goal of becoming a prolific movie-making duo. Unfortunately, the world changed during their Senior year when squirrels started attacking people and infecting them with a strange disease. In a matter of weeks, society changed and well... became slightly less convenient.
It wasn't long before protective clothing was developed and researchers learned of a quick way to dispatch the zombie rodents. So, for the most part, life has returned to normal. I found this aspect of the story's apocalypse to be rather amusing. For the most part, Ty and Burger's story is a normal one, it just happens to occasionally have rabid, glowing-eyed squirrels fly from off-panel and the kids quickly (almost nonchalantly) deal with them. There are some times when their protective gear gets lost, but again, these issues are quickly addressed. The overall apocalypse really is just a slight inconvenience to the rest of the world.
Which is why it's strange that Ty and Burger's former boss, "The Fink," went missing soon after the squizzies showed up. Fink's parents regularly put up missing person posters all over town, but just recently they've started offering a $20,000.00 reward for finding him.
When a friend of theirs comes to town for the summer and sees the posters, he convinces Ty and Burger to help track down The Fink in the hopes of some quick cash. So, Ty and Burger are swept up into Fib's little adventure, and joining them is Fib's long-time boyfriend, Miles. Their hunt for The Fink will take them all over their little town, and our two main characters decide to use this opportunity to film a documentary on the squizzie apocalypse. Their hopes are that the low-budget phone-based recording will help them build up their indie filmmaking street cred.
What Burger doesn't know though is that Ty has a secret she is keeping from him. She got accepted into a film school on the other side of the country, even though she and Burger agreed to take a year off. She has been trying to tell him all summer, but she has constantly found excuses to put off the discussion. Now her move is just a couple of weeks away and she has to tell him tonight, without fail.
I really enjoyed every aspect of Luminous Beings. It didn't take long for me to really enjoy the characters or the settings, and everything about the artwork in this graphic novel was great. I especially liked the reduced color palette that gives this book a distinctive tone. Looking at Ward's other works, this appears to be a style they lean on a lot and it really works.
I highly recommend Luminous Beings for anyone looking for a grounded, coming-of-age-story graphic novel, this one just happens to be set in the most mundane apocalypse you've ever read about.
