Compleat Moonshadow

The first thing is Muth's delicate, expressive watercolors. Even if you look at nothing else, this is a wonderful, sustained effort in visual story-telling. It tracks Moonshadow, the hero, from before his birth into his old age and death. The style perfectly captures sensuality, fear, and the sense of the bizarre. The second is the story. It's baffling, by design, a product of hippie culture and the whims of whimsical and omnipotent beings. That really captures a lot of a kid's experience - with all-powerful adults acting in incomprehnsible ways. It has more, though: coming of age, destroying any romance there might be around war, and loving (and being loved by) people who aren't very lovable. This book is thin, but includes over 400 pages of generally good color printing. The original 1980s comics are all here. So, unfortunately, is a 1997 accretion. It's a newer addition to the Moonshadow canon, also, illustrated by Muth. This add-on relies more on text than on illustration, and is painted in a rougher and more garish style. After the nuance and control of the original story, it's a let-down. Anyone who like comic art should check into this. Anyone who likes good storytelling, where will is pitted against a universe with a sick sense of humor, should like it too. It's a true classic. //wiredweird

My first experience with Moonshadow was some years ago, when a comic-adhesive friend of mine (to say he collected them would be an understatement - he seemed rather to magnetically draw them to his person) found the solitary first issue of Moonshadow in a bulk buy of his. We were both instantly fascinated with the caprice of the Gi'Doses, the wild characterization, and the whimsical tone. At the time (long before graphic novels of any kind were commonplace in our experience), we languished that this, like so many other series we had encountered piecemeal, would probably never be assembled into a single storyfor our enjoyment, and we would never learn what became of the story. Imagine my joy when, only recently, I stumbled upon the Compleat Moonshadow in a local bookstore. Gritting my teeth, I shelled out the dough, drove home, and read the entire story in one sitting. Bleary-eyed, I sent a message to my friend (the one above), informing him of the excellence of the series. A few notes of actual detail: the art is spectacular, a watercolor spread consistent in its ability to create forms carrying significant meaning even when 'abstract.' The narrative, as silly as it is serious, presents the reader with names and places so wacky they allow a childhood sentimentality, even while covering such mature topics as sexual innocence, the horror of war, and the evils of greed. Finally, the writing is, shall we say, large but no overwritten. It may tax the vocabulary of some readers on occasion (something I like, but know is not everyone's favorite), but it expresses complex ideas with as few words as possible (indeed - few words are rarely enough to cover such themes!) Overall, a touching and heartfelt story that ranks very high on my experience of comics, graphic novels, and other pictoral mediums.

I am reading the reviews people wrote for this book, and I am seeing some one star reviews, and I am wondering, "What are these people thinking?" So I am here to tell you that THIS COMIC IS AMAZING! It is the best comic ever made - better than Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Cages, Sandman, Maus, Love and Rockets, etc, etc. Moonshadow surpasses them all! It is so good that it easily qualifies as a "real book" and should be required reading on College campuses across the country. I have read Moonshadow over and over during the past ten years or so, and I always enjoy it. The reviewer before me complained about the changed ending, and yes, the previous ending was better. But all we are talking about is two pages! And anyway, Moonshadow is about life and the paths we take - the ending isn't important; just how we get there. And believe me, the adventures Moonshadow, Ira, etc take before they reach their conclusion are fantastic...this is work filled with the beauty of life, and everyone alive should read this book. It is a work of art that has had a profound effect upon me, as well as many others. Find out for yourself and be amazed

I read this book when I was a teenager back in the late 1980's, and it had profound effect on my view of life. Not only is the art by Jon J. Muth extraordinarily beautiful, but the story by J.M. De Matteis is full of truths that are overlooked by most writers. This book, along with a very few others such as Maus and Watchmen, has helped establish the Graphic Novel as a new literary form apart from "comic" books.

In case anyone had any doubts that the graphic novel can not only compete with, but transcend, mere words, "Moonshadow" puts them to rest. At is heart, this is a simple tale of a boy growing up on the "journey to awakening" that we all take in one form or another. But because it is set agains the backdrop of the entire univese and populated with characters absurd enough to belong in "Catch-22" and deep enough to have sprung from Dickens, the reader is easily fooled and entranced into a story grander and more exciting than any "space opera" that ever hit the big screen. J.M. DeMatteis truly has a gift for language - his words are both poetic and real. "Moonshadow" is a collaboration, however, and DeMatteis's words are never any more, or less, important than Jon Muth's painted images, which go way beyond suggesting simple action and instead draw the reader in to the complex reality that is Moonshadow, our narrator,'s world. Read it not just to see the artistic power of the confluence of words and images, but to feel the anguish and the joys of coming of age in a way only a story too absurd, and yet too real, to be true can depict. I give Moonshadow more than my highest recommendation - I give my pledge that no open-minded person can help but be entranced by it (and if you think I'm wrong, I'd LOVE to hear from you).