Mooncop (a review)

Those of you who have been around since my first review know that I like a wide variety of comics. Horror, western, trippy, a whole bunch of stuff. As a result, I’m constantly frustrated by the popular misconception that comics are just superhero stories for kids/teens. Uh, no! There’s plenty of comics with different genres that adults can enjoy. So, since my complaining hasn’t worked (yet), I decided to find a comic that could challenge that misconception and be accessible for non-comic fans.

And I think I found one.

Mooncop is a graphic novel published by Drawn & Quarterly in 2016. It was written and illustrated by Tom Gauld who also did Goliath and Baking with Kafka. However, he’s better known for the comics/covers he did for The New Yorker and The Guardian as well as the cute comics Neil Gaiman occasionally shares.

As you can guess from the title, the book follows a nameless cop as he makes his rounds on the moon. That should be exciting but as it turns out, the moon is a very boring place. There’s not a whole lot to do there and the population is shrinking as more people leave each day. Still, since there’s people there, a police force is required. So, the cop fills in his days searching…