Poor Moon is a comic created by Shawn Kuruneru. After years of bounty hunting one man decides it’s time for one last chase. This is a Western noir full of introspection with violence and an art style you can feel. The star of this story is a man named Held, a war veteran who turned to bounty hunting when his life hit rock bottom. We get a very close look at his thought process in all these various situations. There are a few other characters of note that I shouldn’t mention for fear of spoilers. There is a strong theme of destiny and searching for reasons to move on. There is a decent amount of action here with visual blood and gory implications. This comic moves at a steady pace and never feels too slow or rushed. There are a few intense moments but they are spread throughout the story. The dialogue reads like what you’d hear on a Western TV show and none of these pages are too wordy. This is an interesting and entertaining comic that’ll suck you in and have you fully invested in what happens to the lead character.
This is a comic drawn in a rough and slightly simpler style with burnt orange being the only other color besides black and white. If you’ve ever seen title screens for old Western shows like The Big Valley you’ll get the kind of vibe this art gives off. The backgrounds really assist in adding life to this story from the mountains in the distance to the forest with lurking dangers. There is no main location here as the life of a bounty hunter requires constant movement but wooded areas are something we’ll frequent. The expression level here is decent as people we meet along give off different looks but our lead is very stoic. When we see close ups of the faces more detail is shown but emotions can be seen and felt even from afar. The action scenes are either very short or a bit longer but never get rough to look at. As if in homage to those older Westerns the violence we actually see isn’t gruesome or hard to look at.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like Westerns and noir stories starring a man suffering from self-doubt and PTSD with some thriller elements this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
PG-13. Violence.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Kinda surprised she could do what she did.”
Purchase Link: https://shawn-kuruneru.square.site/product/poor-moon/54?cs=true&cst=custom
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/burnman/poor-moon/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 66
Violent Pages: 14, for 21% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 3
“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 – 3
“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 – 3
“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 – 1
“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.”