Review: Karen Marie Moning's Fever Moon

FEVER MOON (OGN)
BALLANTINE BOOKS/DEL REY

STORY/CREATOR: Karen Marie Moning
ADAPTATION/SCRIPT: David Lawrence
PENCILS: Al Rio, Cliff Richards
INKS: Julia Pinto, Joe Pimentel, and Dan Borgones
COLORS: Katrina Mae Hao and Rainier Beredo
LETTERS: Zachary R. Matheny
COVER: Al Rio with Stephen Youll and Mae Hao
ISBN: 978-0-345-52548-2; hardcover
192pp, Color, $25.00 U.S., $29.95 CAN

Karen Marie Moning is a New York Times bestselling author and has won the RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America. Moning is the author of a popular series of urban fantasy novels known as the “Fever Series.” Moning makes her first foray into the world of comic books with Fever Moon, an original graphic novel. Fever Dream corresponds with the events depicted in Moning’s novel, Shadowfever (January 2011).

Moning wrote a new story specifically for this graphic novel, which David Lawrence turned into a script for a comic book. Lawrence is known for his work adapting novels into comic books, having adapted the works of fantasy novelist Patricia Briggs into comic book for Del Rey. Al Rio provided most of the pencil art for this graphic novel before his death; fellow Brazilian artist, Cliff Richards, finished penciling the Fever Moon.

As in the “Fever” novels, the star of Fever Moon is MacKayla Lane, who was a normal 20-something, small town, Georgia girl before tragedy struck. She travels to Ireland to investigate the murder of her sister, where she learns that the Celtic folklore concerning fairies is true. The “Fae” are split into the Light (Seelie) and Dark (Unseelie) and their war has spilled over into the human world. MacKayla becomes a “sidhe-ser,” a person who can see the Fae for who and what they are, even when they use glamour to hide their true appearances.

Now, MacKayla is facing an eerie, dangerous being that steals parts of people faces – an ear here, an eye there, a random mouth, etc. Appearing as a tall, gaunt, faceless man nattily dressed in tailcoat and spats, he is terrorizing Dublin and leaving his victims in a coma. MacKayla not only has to discover what kind of creature the attacker is; she must also find a way to stop him. And time is not on MacKayla’s side.

I must admit that it was not until I received a review copy of Fever Moon with press materials from Del Rey that I learned that Al Rio had died. I had become a fan of his work in recent years because his art style was a funky kind of ersatz J. Scott Campbell. Rio did his Campbell thing on Fever Moon; in fact, MacKayla Lane looks like she came out of Campbell’s infrequently published comic book property, Danger Girl. The art here is such a Danger Girl knockoff that I often found it off-putting. Rio’s style is so prominent that it is hard not to notice the change when Cliff Richards takes over as pencil artist. Richard’ style, at least the one here, is non-descript.

Perhaps, the easy thing to do is to say that the art, regardless of style, works from a storytelling point of view; there is a functional quality to it. Combined with the captions and word balloons, the reader can easily figure out what’s going on in the story because of the clear graphical storytelling. Like the art, the story is also efficient. Lawrence translates Moning’s story and the world of “Fever” in such a way that he quickly gets the reader into the story, lest that reader become frustrated and leave, which you won’t.

Lawrence makes sure you understand the characters, settings, and over-arching plot, and “Fever,” at least as far as Fever Moon is concerned, is a fun place to be. Whatever the novels may be, Fever Moon works as a comic book. It has a weird, pulp-inspired quality that made me think that Fever Moon exists outside of any book series. It is genuinely a comic book, so the people behind this graphic novel succeeded. They created an independent urban fantasy comic book, and a good one, at that.

B+

Leroy Douresseaux on BATMAN: TIME AND THE BATMAN

BATMAN: TIME AND THE BATMAN

DC COMICS

WRITERS: Grant Morrison and Fabian Nicieza
ARTISTS: Tony S. Daniel, Cliff Richards, Andy Kubert, Frank Quitely, David Finch, Richard Friend, and Scott Kolins
COLORS: Ian Hannin, Alex Sinclair, Tony Aviña, Brand Anderson, and Peter Steigerwald
LETTERS: Jared K. Fletcher and Travis Lanham
COVER: David Finch and Scott Williams
EXTRAS ART: Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, Dave Stewart, Shane Davis, Sandra Hope, Barbara Ciardo, Juan Doe, Dustin Nguyen, Guillem March, Tim Sale, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Philip Tan
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2989-4; hardcover
128pp, Color, $19.99 U.S., $22.99 CAN

DC Comics recently published a hardcover comic book collection entitled Batman: Time and the Batman. It collects Batman issues 700 to 703 with some extras, including variant covers and a peak inside the Batcave rendered with 3-D modeling.

There is also a gallery of Batman illustrations, a portfolio of sorts entitled “Creatures of the Night: A Batman Gallery.” I won’t say that this gallery is worth the cost of the book, but it is worth at least a quarter of this book’s cover price. There are two hot pieces from Dustin Nguyen and a striking piece by Guillem March, among others.

Batman: Time and the Batman is essentially a bridge story arc that connects Batman R.I.P., Final Crisis, and Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne to one another. In the opening chapter, “Time and the Batman,” the three Batmen: Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, and Damian Wayne fight the past, present, and future. Batman’s most dangerous adversary, the Joker, and a few others use the Maybe Machine, the invention of Professor Carter Nichols, to raise hell in Gotham City across decades.

Next, in a missing chapter of R.I.P., Batman faces Darkseid and trap that will have him doubting his own mind and perceptions and also lost in time. Finally, in “The Great Escape,” the new Batman and Robin face the Gateway Genius and Damian is confronted by how little he knows about his father. It is a sentimental and highly-enjoyable story from the underrated Fabian Nicieza and artist Cliff Richards.

I recently saw an article that began by describing Grant Morrison as a god to fans, and yes, I’m tired of hearing about fanboy gods. Still, there is reason to love some Grant Morrison because his current run on Batman has been so much fun to read. Let’s face it, pretty much every Batman comic book since Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns has lived in the shadow of (ominous music) The Dark Knight Returns.

To me, at least, Grant Morrison’s Batman is more Dennis O’Neil than it is Frank Miller, but what defines Morrison’s Batman is what defines most of his work, imagination. From page to page, the reader never really knows what to expect and from panel to panel the reader never knows what will come out of the characters’ mouths. After 70 years, Batman can be forgiven for suffering from sameness. In Morrison’s hands, Batman is fresh and bouncy. I swear that when I read this I sometimes think that the whole Batman universe is brand new.

Now, this doesn’t always work that way. “R.I.P. – The Missing Chapter” is a rambling mess; it’s the kind of nonsensical, tie-in comic that is the poster child for why crossover events have been done to death. On the other hand, “Time and the Batman,” the opening story, is sparkly and energetic. The story dances across the pages, as Morrison takes us from one Batman to the next (including Batman Beyond).

Most of this book is good, and although the “missing” chapter of R.I.P. is a true blue misfire, Batman: Time and the Batman is a Grant Morrison Batman book to have.

B+