For a book called Moonshine Bigfoot, last month’s debut was surprisingly textured.
Sure, the creative team (co-writer Mike Marlow, co-writer-inker Zach Howard, penciler Steve Ellis, colorist Nelson Daniel, and letterer/designer Thompson Knox) gave us car crashes and aliens, but mostly it was a solid foundation for a story about following your own path and embracing your freak-dom. And that hard left turn from our expectations really mattered — it set Moonshine Bigfoot up for more meaningful success despite its wonderfully cheesy origins.
With issue #2, things are turned up and down as required to further sustain an even smoother, more compelling ride.
Last time around, Moonshine Bigfoot and Amethyst made a high octane delivery. Now, still reeling from the aforementioned aliens, another run-in with the sheriff, and some other hijinks from more emerging players, the couple take time for a little breakfast-making and errand-running. Oh boy, slow down folks!
Courtesy of Image Comics.
But from this once again unexpected (or at least expectation-poking) direction we get something genuinely great. The artwork, for instance, makes an argument about bacon seem generally exciting. (Moonshine Bigfoot’s own “ape in jean shorts” look does a lot for grounding this character in a way that’s wild no matter what he’s doing). Meanwhile, Bigfoot gets a chance to show off his more animalistic side in argument with those pesky researchers (a move that grounds all that intensity and fury in something even more approachable).
Sure, there wasn’t as much mega-action this time around, but maybe we don’t need that when the world feels this effective and balanced. And I didn’t expect balanced to be such a vital descriptor for Moonshine Bigfoot, but this issue cements how the creative team are thinking about things strategically and deliberately to give us thrills with context and give us worldbuilding with pops of joy. (There’s even a nice meta bit referencing this very dynamic, and it shows a deep intellect and earnestness to make this series bigger than it ought to be).
Courtesy of Image Comics.
The big developments of this issue, then, feel mostly subtle or perhaps more understated. The only rather obvious such plot point is learning about the book’s big bad, the aptly-named Big Level. Visually, they’re very much like COBRA by way of HYDRA, and that whole gimmick works really well to play with certain tropes in a new and interesting way. We also get to see why they’re going after Moonshine Bigfoot, and while I won’t spoil that neat-ish idea, it’s just one of the instances in this issue where the book is making really solid decisions in growing the stakes and parameters of this world (when something far more direct, doubly “xtreme” might’ve also worked).
There’s another instance, too, involving psychedelics and the manufacturing of the Bigfoot’s moonshine that furthers this specific dynamic. (I simply adore the whimsy and charm this book offers it’s more seedy moments.) It is, to me at least, an effort by the creators to once again play with our expectations. Not only to make this story about so much more than fast cars and creepy chupacabras, but to push those boundaries in a way that things aren’t just unexpected but novel, interesting, and downright fun and playful above all else.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
And in that way, that’s where Moonshine Bigfoot is making good on its promise as something truly refreshing. It’s very much the thing we want — a weird tale of outsiders operating in a kooky world — but also a story that isn’t so predictable because there’s decisions made and layers fostered to make us active participants and generate real questions. To use Big Level again, they’re very much like The Monarch/The Fluttering Horde because that kind of gimmick is always a blast. But there’s something slightly rock ‘n’ roll as well as magical about this group (visually but also thematically) that sets them apart. So it’s very much of a thing we know but just different enough to not feel overwhelming or overly involved and very much refreshing in the best way.
And there’s other instances that develop across this issue, and it just makes the whole world of Moonshine Bigfoot feel wholly alive in a way that it’s not just one pillar of novelty but this big, breathing beast trying to extend past our perceptions in a way that’s wonderfully compelling because we’re never once catered to and instead challenged in small but mighty ways.
Sure, part of me wonders how they can tell a full story when there’s only four issues, and this second one was great even as it didn’t accomplish that much. (We’re still miles away from all of these parts coalescing in a way to make for any meaningful resolution as well as offer a proper challenge to Moonshine himself, even as things have clearly moved into place.) But then maybe the creators simply don’t care. They’re not interested in just telling some bonkers story, especially since we sort of have all the puzzle pieces ourself (or the most important ones) by the end of this issue.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
Instead, maybe this is just a love letter to, as I mentioned in my review of #1, bonkers ’90s comics. But done in a way not just to offer an homage but one that really pushes this “genre” forward to bigger, more robust territories where you can employ subtext and subtleties alongside muscle cars and mutants. A story where you can have your cake and eat it too — especially if your cake is less high octane action and more a giant world unfurling slowly with a deep roster of interesting characters. In that way, Moonshine Bigfoot blows past what we think it’ll be to instead be a book that’s most impressive feats aren’t speed and power but its precision, mettle, and emotionality.
Issue #2 cements what makes Moonshine Bigfoot so great: It doesn’t stop at being weird and thrilling but keeps going longer and harder so we get something altogether more daring as this book exceeds its innate gimmickry for the confines of a truly wild story on several key levels. Let it blast through your own ideas and understandings, and you might never want to hop out of this true piece of American comics muscle.
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