Graphic Book Review: High Moon Vol. 1

Zombos Says: Very Good

Werewolves and hoodoo in the Old West; two notches on the gunbelts worn by both the bad and the good guys. I found that an intriguing premise for David Gallaher and Steve Ellis's High Moon, a webcomic series appearing on Zuda.com, and now in print by DC Comics. The story moves briskly through the small towns of Blest–which is not–and Ragged Rock–which most certainly is–as former Pinkerton detective Matthew Macgregor is chasing after werewolves and other night-born beasties. Macgregor is a brooding, mysterious figure who wears a tartan scarf in spite of the heat, is short on words and temperament, and carries enough supernatural baggage to fill a railway car all by himself.

Three chapters, beginning with the 100 days drought-plagued town of Blest, keep the Macgregors busy. Yes, there are more than one. I cannot explain too much on this point, but Gallaher and Ellis start with one Macgregor on a mission, or vendetta, or perhaps a soul-ride to salvation, and bring the rest of the clan in as the plot unfolds its deeper pleats. It is not made clear exactly what drives him, but flashbacks give us little clues along the way.

Ellis's gritty art is tightly packed with heavy pencil and ink lines that can become murky at times when saturated with the dry earth and desert sand daylight colors in the first two chapters, and deep blue nighttime snowy landscapes in chapter three. But his style reminds me so much of a sheriff's sooty wanted poster and the animated opening credits to the television show The Wild, Wild West, and even those illustrations in  penny-dreadfuls, or as Deputy Jeb calls them, dime novels, that his gaudy style is in step with the Old West theme.

There is a starting the story in the middle of it approach used by Gallaher. Macgregor enters the small town of Blest looking for an outlaw he has tangled with before. A little girl is missing, and vicious attacks on the townsfolk at night have set everyone on edge. But there is something else driving Macgregor; a bigger mission beyond his hunt for the outlaw. After a preliminary search of the missing girl's room, he knows it was not men or werewolves who took her. More clues found in an abandoned silver mine, and more flashbacks regarding the San Saba Expedition, hint at a great evil unleashed. The inevitable showdown between Macgregor and that evil reveals a darker truth lurking in Blest.

In chapter two, a train robbery, a traveling sideshow with one deadly oddity, and another well-mannered, stove-pipe hatted, steampunk-outfitted Macgregor add more mystery to the saga of Ragged Rock, another town suffering under its burden of nocturnal miscreant monsters.  Macgregor's past comes back to haunt him, and there are tantalizing glimmers of hoodoo in his background. Gallaher and Ellis keep it moving toward the big-nasty showdown, in-between two brothers fighting over the same woman, an eye-plucking revelation of cosmic proportions for one Macgregor, and a gift of immortality that may just be a curse in disguise. Old-time references–like the Harvey Girls (waitresses in the Old West)–and slang–catawampus (things gone awry)–give the characters a tidy period finish. At this point, you either pay close attention to the flashbacks and hints of backstory tossed your way, or you will become lost in the shuffle because Gallaher and Ellis keep piling it on as they move into chapter three and more trouble in Elk Canyon in South Dakota.

Here, in the snow-bound opening scenes of an Indian massacre, pictures convey the action without words. It is a dramatically-charged sequence, but words would have helped clarify the situation. Or maybe Gallaher does not want clarity just yet? As it stands, the marauders, dressed in horns, black clothes, and blood–the leader looks like Conan the Conqueror's Thulsa Doom leading his pillagers–are searching for something. Before you can bat an eye, the story moves on, leaving more mystery to ponder. Young Raven is in search of a champion and seeks Macgregor to combat the cavalry that is killing her people. But there is more behind the cavalry's actions than genocide, and Young Raven is more than she appears to be. An odd symbol, found on the bottom of a bottle, turns up providing another piece to the puzzle of Macgregor's higher mission, and his encounter with a bird-faced, godlike being leaves him questioning his purpose; along with a bit of cosmic enmity that probably will not do him much good in the long run.

I am not sure where Gallaher and Ellis are leading with all this but more developments to the story (you can read them online at zuda.com), which include a meeting with a certain Saucy Jack and Dr. Bell (Sherlock Holmes' fans pay attention), keep invigorating this steampunkish Western or British or Scottish story of bug-eyed beasties and chaps: the ones you wear and the British kind. The artwork melds with the story more than well, and if printed in a larger format, I would even hazard a smashingly to describe the balance between art and word. While you can read the story online, I recommend picking up the book. I was going to–honest–before DC Comics offered me a review copy. The paper choice for the book is that rough, dull-finished paper, which fits the overall tone of High Moon to a tee.

It is heartening to see a storyline about unglamerous werewolves at a time when Goth-beautiful vampires and endless zombies seem to rule the horror genre roost in comics and movies.