So I’m going to try and start up a new column where I delve into a stand-alone work (or something that can stand-alone) that I haven’t read before. I’m not sure of the exact qualifications but I’m going to start with a comic mini-series.

So I noticed on Comixology that a comic by Moebius was available. Since his passing I’ve been looking for something of his to read for a while so when I saw that this was two issues and they were only $1.99 each. So for the price of a usual comic you can get two (admittedly not with the paper). Other than Moebius there was another huge name on this miniseries, Stan Lee. I think this is the first thing that I’ve read that was actually written by Stan the Man. Going into this series I wasn’t sure of the when it takes place nor did it really matter if you know the basic relationship between Galactus and Silver Surfer you should be fine because that is all that really matters. A brief history of the book is in order I think to understand what makes it important in the overall world of geekery. This series was published in 1988/1989 and won the Eisner Award for best finite story. I greatly respect the Eisner awards as a method of finding things you might have missed and usually it’s a good marker of quality.

The story is a bit of its time, given that the 1980s were the hey-day of the televangelists in my mind, before they become the joke that they are today. This book starts with Galactus arriving on earth but causing no damage just arriving and essentially get worshiped as a god, this is fairly reasonable I feel, other than the giant thing arriving on earth. At this point a televangelist decides to use this as a way to spread his message and this causes dissention in the ranks of the worshippers of Galactus in the form of fights and attacks of non-believers. This part still resonates true and is a good way of telling this kind of story (although if you want a comic about this go and read Persepolis).

The story isn’t want really won be over with this book what so ever but it was art by Moebius that was enjoyable. The first thing in the books is the imposing face of Galactus, in a combination of realism and traditional art work, this made the terror a little more real. However, it was not just scenes like this that stand out but there are a few other moments where so see some more cartoony characters that show a range of design and a variety of ways of telling a story. I can’t say if this is best example of Moebius but it sure as hell makes me want to read more of this.