Dark Cloud Comin'
Reviewed by R. Krauss
Dark Cloud Comin'
Reviewed by R. Krauss
By Ed Choy Moorman
$3 from Bare Bones Press
7" x 8-3/4", saddle-stitch binding
20 b&w pages, plus 3C cover
Website: http://edsdeadbody.com
Popular fiction can be defined as a story that ties up all the loose ends. Whatever questions the reader has along the way are resolved by the final page. In contrast, literary fiction may not resolve anything. By examining life's situations and ambiguities, literary fiction informs the reader, but leaves resolution open to interpretation.
Ed Choy Moorman's Dark Cloud Comin' is a literary fable. The story opens with a village divided in half by a single dirt road that disappears into the mountains that frame the horizon. Inside a grass-roofed cottage a young tom boy named Elona, is admonished to dress like a proper young lady. The girl escapes her mother's scorn outside, but the dark clouds and pelting rains soon compel her to return. Suddenly a robed emissary of The Holy Hand appears in the doorway. He's come for the family's infant. The behemoth of the mountains demands pure little children to fuel his heart. The mother has no choice but to comply, and the holy man leaves with the baby. As the mother grieves, Elona steals away that night to find the behemoth and rescue her brother.
Moorman's fictitious world is visually charming but cruelly harsh. The talking frog and animated stalagmites are drawn in sharp contrast to the draconian rules of the land. The ending is ambiguous, leaving the reader to offer his own hopeful or sorrowful conclusion.
Take A Look Inside
Reviewer Bio
R. Krauss reviews small press and mini comics on Midnight Fiction, Poopsheet Foundation and Comic Related.
Name: Richard Krauss
email: arkay@midnightfiction.com
Been reading comics: since I started reading Marvel comics in Junior High School.
Review Bio: After several years I discovered titles like Zap and Bijou at a headshop and was seduced by the freedom and variety they offered. When the new-wave comix era sprouted from the seeds of the undergrounds, I quickly joined the ranks of other struggling cartoonists with phenomenally low print runs. After almost a decade of small press comix, I retired and made a solemn vow never to return. Several years later the Internet happened and over time many of my favorite new-wave cartoonists got online. The bug bit again and I started exploring the new crop of small press cartoonists. Today's explosion of small press comics is more exciting than any time I've ever seen.
Favorites: Papercutter, Not My Small Diary, Slam Bang, Comic Eye, stuff from Main Enterprises and Weird Muse, to name a few.
Website: MidnightFiction.com
blog comments powered by Disqus