‘Moon #1&2’ Review
Written by Dan Thompson | Art by Steve Penfold | Published by Beyond the Bunker
A sci-fi comedy comic about a crime fighting moon (with a human body, arms and legs – just a moon instead of a head) is not something I would normally read. But the simply titled Moon caught my eye at a recent comic convention and I caught myself quickly reading through the first two issues smiling from ear to ear.
The first issue give us a rundown of how the Moon reached Earth in 12AD. Through a ritual that is much more ridiculous and comedic than you would probably imagine, we then quickly fast forward to present day In London, England and Moon is fighting crime with his long time work partner who is ready to go on his first holiday in twenty seven years. But that doesn’t go quite to plan. You will see where the story is going right away but this feels very much like a tiny beginning of something much bigger.
Issue two opens up a whole new can of worms though (and characters) and things get weird and super interesting, even if at times you can see what’s coming next – Moon gets a new partner. But ending things at a time when you’ll be desperate to read more. The new characters are great but once again I did feel like the story was only just beginning.
Moon’s writing style feels very…. well, British. And that’s a good thing. The comedy goes from some clever and funny one-liners to all out slapstick at times. Again, this was very much a good thing. It makes fun of itself, knowing that it’s a bit clichéd but it’s also written well enough that it is just continuously amusing and exciting.
The artwork really is eye-poppingly fantastic. I remember distinctly as a child that one of the reasons I never really got into comics was because I used to love the cover art only to look inside and realise that the cover produced the best artwork through the whole comic. But with Moon, it’s like this idea is reversed and what is one the front is just a quick glimpse at the greatness inside. Each page literally bursts open with action, colour and a strikingly brilliant style of drawing. There is so much going on on each and every page. At first I honestly thought too much. I was looking closely at some images because I couldn’t work out at first glance what was going on. Other times I was turning the page at different angles and on most pages I just had to hold the comic back a bit so I could look at everything in all its glory! It really is a comic that demands you look through again after the first reading, even if its just to look at the artwork.
Moon offers gun fights, violence and over-the-top comedy with some of the best artwork I’ve seen in a long time. Now up to issue six, I will be making sure I catch up and you should to!
**** 4/5
You can buy copies of Moon at the Beyond the Bunker website
