Broken Moon #1
American Gothic Press
Created By: Philip Kim
Writer: Steve Niles
Artist: Nat Jones
Release Date: 9/9/2015
If you are familiar at all with 30 Days of Night (IDW) or Criminal Macabre (Dark Horse/Image), then you will find this new comic book by Famous Monster magazine’s comic book publishing division (American Gothic Press) highly entertaining and familiar. Steve Niles, the writer for Broken Moon tells a story about the future of mankind, which by our own doing lets the monsters of the world step out of the shadows and rule us. The initial concept of a war on the moon, that cracks it and sends the oceans of the Earth into cataclysmic events, is a great way to hook readers in. Soon after, the monsters of the world (vampires and werewolves) step from the shadows as humankind is weakened and pushed into hiding.
The writing of this comic felt a little forced when character names were constantly being brought up in dialogue which always feels unnatural. But other than using character names, I thought this was well written to make it clear what was going on, what is currently happening and where future issues will take us.
The art of this comic is very fitting for our main subjects (vampires and werewolves). The right amount of dark dark blue coloring lets scenes be ominous and dingy without black-washing panels. There were a few times I felt a panel might be missing or a characters emotions didn’t portray how they should have been feeling from a moment before, such as; when one of the fleeing humans went from terrified because she was being chased to completely calm within two panels.
Some slight nitpicking on my part still left me excited to read more issues of Broken Moon. Vampires vs werewolves is a cliche and one of the most played out storylines of the monster vs monster genre. But somehow the events of this comic feel fresh and are still entertaining. I’m also hoping the Broken Moon aspect as the title would suggest comes into play more in future issues.