The Lunar Ladies #1

The Lunar Ladies #1

Scout Comics 2021

Written by Omar Morales

Illustrated by Joel Cotejar

Coloured by Paula Goulart

Lettered by Jaymes Reed

A million years ago, in outer space, a highly-advanced society of women lives under the surface of the moon. Their peaceful way of living is quietly fracturing from the inside, as political ideologies pit the queen of the moon against a geneticist hell bent on usurping the queen's power. The Lunar Ladies is an homage to the public domain character, Moon Girl, complete with Golden Age ray guns and laser rays. Pew-pew!

I love, love, LOVE this book! I was so surprised and taken aback at how much this reminds me of old pulp style science fiction storytelling. The entire aesthetic of this book is completely and utterly mindbogglingly brilliant and it really harkens back to a time of more innocence and yet it is so incredibly modern at the same time. This really is a masterpiece of storytelling through the words and the visuals and it brilliantly captures the readers own creativity and imagination and let’s them become engaged and invested in what we’re seeing almost immediately upon opening the book. The Moon is hollow and there is a society solely of women and like any society there is always that one person who craves the limelight and leadership role even if they have no business in that position.

This is being told brilliantly. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequences of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is perfectly presented. The character development through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as the way they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continues to flesh these characters out beautifully. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the story, the characters and seeing the twists & turns along the way we’re captivated and mesmerised by the story.

I think the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begins to emerge and grow is exceptionally well rendered. The avenues we see opening up and how the layers weave through these avenues bringing extra depth, dimension and complexity to the story is perfectly portrayed. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is exquisitely rendered.

These interiors have left me gobsmacked from the first page. I’m chuffed to bits by the way we see this strong, clean and crisp linework with its varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality in the attention to detail. That we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is absolutely magnificent. The creativity and imagination that we see throughout is stunning and really showcases such a creative mind. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is equally as brilliant. That the palate we see is done in such a way that it feels old, like weathered pages from a 10 cent pulp magazine is beyond brilliant. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows this master colourist at work.

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This took me by surprise so much so that you could’ve knocked me over using just a feather by how good this book is. There isn’t anything about this that does speak to the reader and tell the story in such a brilliantly perfect way. The writing is astoundingly strong and the characterisation is brilliantly portrayed and when you add in these mindbogglingly brilliant interiors what you get is this perfectly modern throwback book that should be in everyone’s hands.