30 in 30: Moebius - Upon a Star

#16: Moebius 1: Upon a Star
Storytellers: Moebius (Jean Giraud)
Publisher: Epic Comics
Year Of Publication: 1987
Page Count (can be approximate or in # of issues format): 64 pages

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT WRITING / STORYTELLING:

When writing alien dialects, one need not be constrained by utilizing our English alphabet.  You can use images instead of words – made up or otherwise – to show their language in the word balloons

 
WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT ART / STORYTELLING:

The coloring in this book really stood out for me.  The use of vivid colors was striking in this.  And the fact that Moebius used colors for common things (such as the sea or the characters’ skin tones) that did not match with our expectations (the sunsets were green, some human-like characters had orange skin) really sold the alien setting of these stories.

 
RECOMMENDATION: B

NOTES / REVIEW / SYNOPSIS This was the first of Epic’s line of Moebius collection from the 1980s and it includes a few short stories and one longer story, “Upon a Star,” that are all part of Moebius’s Aedena cycle.  They were enjoyable, and the art was amazing, but there was little ground-breaking in here, in my opinion. Still, these were very fun and beautiful science fiction stories that I would definitely recommend, if you’re able to find them at a decent price now.

30 in 30: Someplace Strange

#12: Someplace Strange
Storytellers: Ann Nocenti & John Bolton
Publisher: Epic Comics
Year Of Publication: 1988
Page Count (can be approximate or in # of issues format): 64 pages

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT WRITING / STORYTELLING:

I really liked the use of thought balloons and captions in this.  In the opening of the story, the older brother chases his younger one to – we assume – beat him up for messing with his experiment, and the younger brother narrates the chase as if it were an adventure serial. It works to not only add characterization, but it also adds whimsy to the story. And toward the end, Nocenti utilizes the caption boxes to infuse a cinematic aspect to the story – one time directing readers to “start at the feet then raise your eyes slowly, stopping at the head…just like they do in movies,” when the hero is created in the dream world, and a few pages later a caption instructs readers to “quick, run to your stereo and put on ‘the charge of the light brigade,’ stand at attention, send shivers down your spine…and swell with emotion.”  It’s fun and appropriate for the type of story being told here.

 
WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT ART / STORYTELLING:

One – with an artist as talented as Bolton, having him switch styles depending upon the tenor of a scene works very well in a story that is mainly told in a dreamland.  He not only utilizes his photorealistic painting style, but also incorporates psychedelia, black and white parts, a less detailed “crayon” style, and others to great effect.

Two- utilize the whole page.  On many of the pages, Bolton would anthropomorphize the numbers at the bottom of the page to mirror actions within the main narrative, providing subtle emphasis for the main thrust of the narrative scenes.  It was fun and appropriate for this story.  

and a detail of the flying page number at the bottom:

 
RECOMMENDATION:  B

NOTES / REVIEW / SYNOPSIS

I don’t know how many years I’ve had this, probably since the 1990s.  Ever since Nocenti’s run on Daredevil with JRJr, I’ve been a fan of hers and picked this up because of that – having Bolton doing the art is just a nice extra.  And now that I’ve read it, I wonder why it took me so long.  This was really entertaining, and I expect I’ll re-read it someday.