Moonshine
AZZARELLO | RISSO
Do you know stress? Do you stress so hard that you find yourself researching whether bathing in CBD or dousing your life in lavender oil is a more effective approach at 4 am? Have you ever been so stressed you just want to reach out to someone about it, but when you start talking you realize how stressed that other person is and everyone is stressed all the time and there's no escaping it? These are all rhetorical questions, of course, there is no way that you are not stressed right now, my mind is unable to comprehend that a non-stressed person exists.
I'm at this level of stress where I just want to carry an ax around everywhere continuously mumbling 'now my troubles are going to have troubles with me,' but in a like really calm, chill way. Ma'am, please do not call the cops. So it is understandable, at least, why my review this week is for Moonshine. It's dark, it's so dark it's noir and that's the last joke I will ever make.
This book is an unfortunate example of the voices that dominate this industry. This comic was made by white men for white men. To be honest, whenever I see a book written about a bygone era, I am extremely wary because this industry has conditioned me to be so. I don't want to read a book about a white guy who has it easy because he's a white guy and then continually fucks up and is forgiven mostly because he's a white guy and then women just all flock to him and fall in love because he's a white guy. I like real characters in fake stories and this character is too fake while this story is too real.
This book went too far, embracing the noir genre literally and without thought. The black characters were not treated with care, and are arguably not even characters. I'm pretty sure the one female black character is the same person as the one female white character. The main character has zero redeeming qualities. Two Italian men created a work about Italian men. There is nothing wrong with works written from the author and/or artist's viewpoint...when they're original. These men have thrown a supernatural element into a cliche'd story and have declared it something new which is unfortunately not the case.
I was wondering how long it would take me before I reviewed one of these kinds of books. Not long at all, I guess. Now that we've gotten my main grievance about the book out there, I do have a few more things to say.
I can't be the only one who gets a little exasperated at the written form of accents. I understand the reasoning but at the same time I'm slowly sinking into a deep rage. The dialogue disappoints as equally as it impresses. The author has some novel tricks which I found interesting and hope will be picked up by others.
God, I love this art style. I love the high contrast and how he turns all other lights off whenever a character lights a cigarette. It's dramatic, and I love drama. However, the art does not pass scrutiny. A lot of the shadows aren't where they're supposed to be which is bizarre when a lot of the style depends on dramatic lighting. I guess, in these instances, the artist relies on magical lighting that comes at different angles depending on the character or disappears entirely past a certain point in the frame. I am fully behind Risso's signature, his personal approach to the artist's seal is my favorite part of his artwork, but he includes it on random pages throughout the book. Yeah dude, we get that this is your artwork, your name is already on the cover...twice.
Well....sigh...I guess, if you're happy with the status quo, you should read this book.