Episode #4 of the Dark Moon motion comic, created by Tom Freeman, was recently released. I was lucky enough to get to check out the latest episode, and I’ll give you the low down below (without spoiling too much!).
As far as being a comic fan, I’m a late bloomer. I collected a few memorable books when I was a kid, but I really only got back into reading them hardcore in the last 3 years or so. While I do enjoy a handful of tried and true superhero books, my heart lies with horror and science fiction comics. With the Dark Moon series, you get both.
Dark Moon is a motion comic, and if you’re unfamiliar with this medium of storytelling, here’s the basic gist. A motion comic combines traditional comic book panels with some animation, music and in some cases, voice acting and sound effects. That means that this isn’t exactly the kind of comic series you can pick up by running down to your friendly neighborhood comic shop. You’ll need Adobe Flashplayer or a reading app on your smartphone in order to view Dark Moon and other motion comics like it.
Now that we’ve got the technical requirements out of the way, here’s a quick overview on the Dark Moon storyline:
It’s a survival story, incorporating space and time travel. A disaster threatens Earth and a young scientist uses an experimental transport device to save himself and others. They arrive on a distant moon, and in true space horror fashion they soon find out that they’re low on life support and they’re being hunted by aliens.
Episode #4 starts with the survivors’ return to Earth, but they didn’t come back alone. Alien creatures have followed them and soon begin terrorizing the city the survivors live in. Violence ensues, and one of the survivors tracks down the root of the evil creatures by way of psychic connection. I don’t want to spoil too much, but it’s a bit hard to say whether the episode– and since it’s the last one– the entire series has a happy ending or not. You’ll just have to catch up on all 4 episodes yourself and form your opinion.
Dark Moon is an interesting comic and it works well in the motion comic medium. The story is original and makes for some great sci-fi/horror entertainment. I wasn’t completely blown away by the artwork, but it did start to grow on me some after a few pages. Visually, the comic is a kind of blend between Blade Runner and Pitch Black. What really kicks ass about Dark Moon is the soundtrack. It’s the same kind of atmospheric synth rock we got in certain video games back in the 90’s.
Dark Moon is an interesting series with a solid story and some really unique artwork. The soundtrack alone is work checking it out, in my opinion, and as fate would have it, you can purchase both the soundtrack (for incredibly cheap!) and issues of the comic by visiting the Dark Moon website here.
Check out the trailer for the series below, and you might just recognize the main character’s voice as one of the most iconic and beloved personalities in the horror genre…Tony Todd!