Moonstone #1 is a comic written by Paul Veenstra with art by John Li & Mykola Myky. A young man comes to the aid of a blind woman while the kingdom is facing devastation. This is a slow-moving comic that wants us to soak up every bit of information and feel what these characters feel. Our main man is Myro, a prince currently traversing a rocky beach and hunting. The blind woman is Sage, she has an avian companion named Lynn that finds itself in various situations. The plot focuses on introducing the reader to the world and a couple of the key characters. We will also learn about the state of the kingdom and the dangers that lurk. There are themes of discovery and destiny interspersed throughout this tale. The action here is bloody and it does get very gory at some points. A few moments can be stressful but this isn’t very intense overall. The dialogue is straightforward and sounds closer to modern English than you’d expect. No wordy pages here; you’ll spend more time looking at the art than reading. This is an interesting debut for a comic with some eye-catching art that is sure to have you curious about what comes next.

            The art here does a lot more heavy-lifting than your average comic. Due to the lack or lightness of words on many of these pages you will be forced to focus on the art which might cause you to glean a little more meaning from each image. The scenery is very prominent with the details in the sand, stone and water almost stealing some of the scenes they are in. The backgrounds do persist throughout every panel. This comic has about three locations and they all have a struggling vibe to them. The expression level here is above-average with these characters being very adept at showing their emotions. The faces are very detailed with good use of shadows so everything comes across clearly. The owl-like companion might be a real creature but I do not know enough about birds to verify. The action scenes here tend to be short and get bloody and gory. You will see some significant nastiness.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like tales led by a man and woman dealing with devastation and the unknown while alluding to greater forces at play than this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Blood and gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“You’re lucky she didn’t see that…”

 

Site Link: https://moonstonesaga.com/

Kickstater Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulveenstra/moonstone-fantasy-comic-series/description

 

***** I received this review copy for free. *****

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 31

Violent Pages: 7, for 23% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 3% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 2

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 4

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 2

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”