Carbon is at the core of tale about fossil fuel and life

A greedy coal baron is pillaging the earth for its natural resources, and will stop at nothing — not environmental damage or even lost lives — to extract every dollar.

Then the earth cracks open from the stress he puts on it, and the corporate boss literally unleashes hell.

It’s a scenario that would make a great sci-fi movie.

For now, it’s “Carbon,” a graphic novel written by Daniel Boyd, who is an author, filmmaker and professor at West Virginia State University in Institute, W.Va., near Charleston.

Boyd wrote the book (illustrated by Edi Guedes) to make a point — in dramatic, apocalyptic and cinematic fashion — about the real villains in the Environment vs. Economy battle.

He is a native of southern West Virginia — you can hear it in his accent — and he loves the area and its people. But he sees the wool being pulled over their eyes by energy companies that are villifying the government for its so-called “war on coal.”

Instead of adhering to Earth-friendly practices, he sees the coal companies as cloaking themselves in populist rhetoric, and deceptively switching the feud to one between the federal government and West Virginia residents who rely on coal for their livelihood.

Of course, the coal fields of southern West Virginia have a kinship to the Mahoning Valley.

Both areas have a history of being exploited by an industry — in our case, steel — that left behind an environmental mess.

With the rise of natural-gas fracking in this area, those old parallels are starting to come back into focus. The dynamic isn’t quite the same here, but battle lines between environmentalists and industrialists have already been drawn.

Boyd has a strong passion for the cause and for his fellow Mountain State residents.

“The last thing I want to do is throw my state under the bus,” said Boyd, in a phone interview. “These are my people. I am one of them. But the greatest natural resource we ever had is destroying the planet. We’ve got to get on the right side of history.”

Boyd, who lives in Mingo County in southern West Virginia, loves the natural beauty of that area but can’t turn a blind eye to the truth.

“This four-county area was once a trillion-dollar coal field, and now it looks like a Third World country because of the economy,” he said. That’s because coal companies would rather shut mines down than play by the rules, according to Boyd.

“My main argument is that this whole phony campaign against ‘the war on coal’ started two presidents ago,” he said. Sen. [Robert] Byrd has been saying for decades that this change is coming and we need to evolve, but the coal companies instead just want to stir up the people. They would rather pit the people against the government as opposed to just practicing environmentally safe mining.”

In his graphic novel “Carbon,” Boyd makes his political point, but it’s just one plot element in an epic tale.

He steers into the realm of science fiction and monster movies. A company is in search of a deep coal that burns forever, but it awakens a life form that traces its basic element to the mineral. When disaster arises, a group of coal miners, and a former minor-league baseball player, emerge as heroes.

“Carbon” is the first installment in what will be a trilogy. The next book will be titled “Salt.” It continues the saga and also touches on the fracking issue.

“It picks up where ‘Carbon’ leaves off,” said Boyd. “The eternal coal is ablaze, the refugees have set off for Charleston, and religion gets used by both sides, creating a new mythology.”

Boyd is hoping that his tales are picked up by a filmmaker, and has already received some interest.

“Carbon” is published by Caliber Comics. It can be purchased in comic-book shops and from online retailers, including Amazon.