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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Great read and a welcome change from stories we commonly read in more available media. A wonderful combination of indigenous writing and storytelling with brilliant art. Many of these are combined with genres of sci-fi and fantasy unlike anything I've read. Perhaps most important in this volume is the Introduction which marks as a signpost as it enumerates stereotypes which are far too common of indigenous people in mainstream media. Inside are beautiful stories which are indeed different from others I know. The Afterword outlines this well that ".... stories from Indigenous culture in North America may not be what contemporary Western audiences expected, with clear good and evil characters following a beginning-middle-end. A few that are includes in MOONSHOT are more akin to vignettes; moments in time." I'm very glad that I backed this Kickstarter. I cannot wait to read Volumes 2 and 3 next...
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
adventurous
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
Not all of these are folktales, but enough of them are that I feel comfortable saying this is mostly a folktales book. And it's pretty great. I really enjoyed (most of) the different writing styles and the art. The stories themselves were also really interesting. Some of them I didn't like very much, but they're all short, so if you're not enjoying one, a different one will be along soon. I'm looking forward to Volume 2.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Bumping the rating down to 4 stars because of the often unsatisfying (at least to my White, Western, settler view of looking at storytelling) conclusions to the stories, but some of the stories did end on interesting, fascinating notes. A memorable one was one which name I forget but involves a woman appearing to sacrifice her children to a spirit, who then raises her children themselves when it turns out the woman committed suicide out of not wanting to kill her children. The belief of life as sacred because the child is connected to the mother and the father and the mother and father before them is an interesting way of looking at things, and is something that I've never really thought of before as a reason why some people would be pro-life, though I don't think this story was an anti abortion message as much as a tragedy about a woman who's freedom was stolen from her and got married way too young by force. The final story was also interesting, with a Two-Spirit activist being aided by a trickster god in her revolution to destroy a blood quantum imposed dystopia. I also enjoyed the Xenesi story, as it was similar in tone and humor to Doctor Who.
Overall, interesting collection with a few standout stories, but a lot that ended abruptly for my taste.
Overall, interesting collection with a few standout stories, but a lot that ended abruptly for my taste.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Slavery
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
Hope Nicholson here has edited quite the collection of short stories and vignettes in comic form by numerous Indigenous authors and artists of North America. They take their own oral traditions and reimagine them in fantastic and science fiction ways, often putting a modern twist into a traditional tale which still honors the heart of the traditional story. With high-quality art and brief yet very insightful introductions to each new tale, this is a strong first installment in the anthology series.
I found the short blurbs introducing each comic extremely informative, as I am not very familiar with many Indigenous tales and stories. They really helped frame the short story or vignette and shed light on what I was supposed to understand from it, which was especially helpful for the vignettes. Even so, some of the vignettes had me still wondering at the end what I was missing, such as “Siku” by Tony Romito – so they could have been a little bit longer, or the blurb a little more detailed in making that final connection which can help those like me with little knowledge of the story style understand it as the author/artist intended.
The amount of heart and work which went into telling each of these stories is incredible, with stunning results. The variety of mediums and art styles works well in this collection, as each one does a stand-out job for portraying its own story. I would definitely be willing to read the next two anthology collections.
I found the short blurbs introducing each comic extremely informative, as I am not very familiar with many Indigenous tales and stories. They really helped frame the short story or vignette and shed light on what I was supposed to understand from it, which was especially helpful for the vignettes. Even so, some of the vignettes had me still wondering at the end what I was missing, such as “Siku” by Tony Romito – so they could have been a little bit longer, or the blurb a little more detailed in making that final connection which can help those like me with little knowledge of the story style understand it as the author/artist intended.
The amount of heart and work which went into telling each of these stories is incredible, with stunning results. The variety of mediums and art styles works well in this collection, as each one does a stand-out job for portraying its own story. I would definitely be willing to read the next two anthology collections.
Very nice collection of comics with beautiful art and interesting stories.
Fantastic concept that is a bit of a weird experience reading via the backer PDF files. They’re not exported correctly; some are clearly higher resolution than others. I imagine the newer digital release on comiXology would have fixed that but the files I’ve had for years now, finally getting around to them, are like this.
The collection itself does what it sets out to do. It’s highly eclectic and doesn’t have a western centric lens, and the stories, overall, probably about 3/4 of them I quite liked. Similar to short story collections, there’s some great ones and some that I didn’t get out of and didn’t like the visual style of, either. But I have all 3 collections, so I’m hoping it gets more refined as we go, and that the export is better. I’m reading it via a PDF reader and made sure to specify sizing it as it’s supposed to be and via single pages at a time, so it’s disheartening that the compilation isn’t unified in terms of dpi and ratio.
The collection itself does what it sets out to do. It’s highly eclectic and doesn’t have a western centric lens, and the stories, overall, probably about 3/4 of them I quite liked. Similar to short story collections, there’s some great ones and some that I didn’t get out of and didn’t like the visual style of, either. But I have all 3 collections, so I’m hoping it gets more refined as we go, and that the export is better. I’m reading it via a PDF reader and made sure to specify sizing it as it’s supposed to be and via single pages at a time, so it’s disheartening that the compilation isn’t unified in terms of dpi and ratio.