Moth City Season 1 Review

Digital comics are becoming more and more prevalent. Nowadays, most titles release both a physical and digital format side-by-side, but they don’t take full advantage of the digital format. Many times, they are boring copy and paste examples of their physical counterpart that are not optimized for a digital reader. The same story cannot be said for the digital only Moth City. Tim Gibson takes the possibilities of digital comics and runs away with it, weaving an engrossing and suspenseful mystery that fully utilizes the possibility of an ecomic. Hit the jump to find out more!

MOTH CITY
STORY AND ART BY: TIM GIBSON

Moth City is set in the 1930s East Orient. The titular city is a compact manufacturing island given to an American tycoon named Governor McCaw. The Chinese Nationalist government wishes to destroy the Communist threat and unite the world’s greatest nation. It is McCaw’s task to outfit the government’s immense army with a weapon lethal enough to bring a swift end to the civil war. During what should have been a simple demonstration of the bio-weapon’s potent strength, McCraw’s lead scientist is murdered, and he begins to realize that he has less control over his island than what he believes. Forces are conspiring against him, and he must unravel this mystery before he loses everything.

 

Dat mustache!

Gibson has a way of building suspense through his conversations and art. Each character possesses ulterior motives to the point that everyone feels like they are hiding some deep, dark secret. Muted colors add to the mystery noir feel oozing from every panel. But what helps bring the suspense roaring the front is the utilization of an ecomic.

As each panel appears the page evolves and tells a different story than a moment ago. Characters eyes flick towards each other, shanks slide down into hands, and speech bubbles overlap with the expression of the speaker changing with each exchange. Panels progressively appear on the page allowing the reader to focus on a single piece of art before the page is full. It gives motion to the comic and a splendid pace to each page, while granting a better understanding of the characters’ emotions.

VERDICT - MUST READ

The first season of Moth City has everything I could have wanted, mystery, suspense, drama, action, and a damn unique story. The fully utilized ecomic format gives it a breath of fresh air amongst other digital downloads. You can find Moth City on mothcity.com (already into season 2 here) or its new location at thrillbent.com. A digital download at Comixology is also available. All of these options are worth a journey into this bleak, engrossing world.

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