Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Glorified Prologue to Potential B-Movie, January 18, 2006
I picked this up mainly because I've been digging Joe Casey's work lately, but also because I wanted to read a few more AiT books before deciding whether or not to write them off completely as not my thing. Publisher Larry Young is big on the high concept, and Full Moon Fever delivers in that regard, with a pretty simple pitch: werewolves on the moon. Unfortunately, it does absolutely nothing with the idea, stretching out what could easily be the opening 10 minutes of an entertaining B-movie into an overpriced, novella length OGN. Astronauts arrive at deserted moonbase, discover slaughtered scientists, discover werewolves, get picked off one by one, one survivor escapes, end of story. Or is it? One-dimensional characters and a by-the-numbers plot do little to complement Damian Couciero's solid b&w artwork, and the throwaway cliffhanger on the final page left me annoyed that I'd effectively paid $12.95 for a glorified prologue.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU BEING TORN TO SHREDS!, January 12, 2006
Full Moon Fever is a fantastic small press graphic novel offered up from AiT/PlanetLar. Think of it as Universal monsters meets Ridley Scott in a claustrophobic, tightly paced story from Joe Casey, Caleb Gerard, and Damian Couceiro.
In the not too distant future, Zeke Kirby is the leader of a waste disposal team (fancy term for plumbers!)on their way to a space station on the moon to make some repairs. Upon reaching the lunar station they, along with the two military shuttle pilots are surprised to find the place completely empty. As Zeke takes his team below to begin their repairs, the soldiers start their sweep of the deserted station. When it comes time to check in and Zeke sends the cowardly Doyle off to check in with the Colonel...only to find him torn to pieces.
A panicked Doyle returns to the rest of the team, telling them what he found and screaming that they have to leave now. A calmer Zeke leads his group up to check out what's happening. They locate a deserted research lab and soon find one scientist who has locked himself away for safety. He tells Zeke that they were studying plant samples from Earth including one from the Baltic region. These samples, when combined with lunar radiation soon began to mutate the scientists into rabid werewolves as they killed everyone on the space station. Now, Zeke and his team find themselves alone, with no help arriving and no weapons to battle the creatures. Their only hope is to make it to the shuttle before the beasts find them!
Full Moon Fever is a wonderful blend of old-fashioned monster story mixed with a sci-fi setting. The action builds slowly and deliberately as the tension mounts with the survivors. The art is rendered in beautiful pure black & white, with no grays or zip-a-tone. This creates a very stark, anti-septic feel to the story which works well and makes the isolated atmosphere that much more potent.
I also enjoyed reading the text section that follows the story, kind of a creator's commentary along with the book's script. A very impressive, small press book.
Reviewed by Tim Janson
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Story's threadbare but the dialogue works, fast-paced little story, art's real nice, and there's a decent amount of werewolves, June 9, 2008
I didn't find this comic to be as good as the first reviewer before me said it was (definitely not 5 stars) but it's also not as empty as the second reviewer states, IMO. The story moves at a perfect pace, we get a good sense of most of the characters through their dialogue (even though we barely get to know any of them aside from the lead), I love the black and white art, and it's a pretty good werewolf book (depending on what you want out of a story if you're a fan of the beasts. Me, I like anything decently written, whether it's savage werewolves on the moon or intelligent tribe-types, though you don't see as much of that, they're usually mindless killers).
I'm ignoring the "?" that comes after "The End" in the book. The conclusion is fine, even if it is a little open ended depending on how each reader prefers to interpret...
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***SPOILERS***
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Three possibilities for a continuation:
Zeke is infected from the bites and slashes
There are still some mutated scientists left on the moon base (though they'll run out of McDonalds and dead bodies for food eventually)
Scientists on Earth are still messing with the Wolfsbane plant
(all of the above is possible too, of course, though if the next story doesn't take place on the moon then it'll probably be less "high concept" and more generic in its setting and the tale it has to tell)
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