Welcome to the First Issue Bin, where I — Ethan Kaye — randomly grab one of this week's comics that’s just starting up and give you the details on whether it should get added to your collection … or remain on the comic shop shelf.
Moonshine Bigfoot #1
Writers: Mike Marlow & Zach Howard
Pencils: Steve Ellis
Inks: Zach Howard
Color Artist: Nelson Daniel
Letterer: Thompson Knox
Editor: Chris Ryall
Oh, to live in this wonderful world where "moonshinin'" is a viable and familiar entertainment genre.
Thanks to grainy '70s films like Moonshine County Express and White Lightning, and shows like Moonshiners, America has come to welcome the illegal production and smuggling of backwoods-stilled liquor into its accepted entertainment canon. It took us fifty years, but we did it, Ma. We can take well-worn tropes about hillbillies in fast cars carrying moonshine and mash them up with conspiracies and cryptids.
While the rest of the country fails us, comics are keeping us honest.
Image's Moonshine Bigfoot is nothing but fast-paced, fast-dialogued fun, taking those films from the '70s and replacing Jerry Reed and David Carradine with, well, Bigfoot. The last Bigfoot, as the rest are revealed to be dead. Bigfoot has settled down with a gorgeous hippy girl, Amethyst, both of whom spend the entire issue on the run from the law, the cryptid hunters, a rival moonshiner, and the big "THEM" behind conspiracy theories.
All in one car chase. Through 18 glorious pages.
With action this fun, you don't really need to lean on the plot too heavily, but it's there. For those 18 pages, Bigfoot and Amethyst are trying to get some hooch to Uncle Pineapple's bar (I'm guessing Uncle Pineapple's name is a mix of Pineapple Express and Popcorn from Moonshiners). They're pursued by Sheriff Justus P. Worrell (a sly mix of Jackie Gleason's "Buford T. Justice" from Smokey and the Bandit and Jim Varney's Ernest P. Worrell character), the American Cryptid and Bigfoot Hunters in their RV, the rival greaser racer Crank Torquelson, and newcomer, the unnamed head of international supervillain group "Big Level," giving off Cobra Commander/Miles Mayhem-from-M.A.S.K. vibes.
Over hill and dale they go, evading capture and getting to Uncle Pineapple's, a veritable Mos Eisley cantina of '70s and '80s sleaze movie refugees. But now that Big Level is involved and knows that Bigfoot is alive and well, they're going to start taking a bigger part in his life — and in a bad way.
Sounds like a hoot? It's a hoot and a half. You'll have zero difficulty following the story and tons of fun picking out all the little jokes and cameos. Steve Ellis's pencils, Zach Howard's inks, and Nelson Daniel's colors blend into a grindhouse dream, with just enough massive half-splashes to evoke the big cliff-jumping stunts of those old films (and Dukes of Hazzard, I'm not forgetting them). Everything is huge, from the characters to the environments to the action. I never thought I'd say this about a comic, but this car chase is amaaaaaazing.
Nothing about it is serious, so don't walk away from this review thinking, "Oh shit, I have to pick up another Department of Truth?" This book is pure adrenaline, drink, drugs, and nostalgia, served up with the goofiest characters to ever hit print. Is it a parody? I guess, but it really just fits snugly into the southern-fried comedy camp. Bigfoot drives a souped up car and delivers moonshine. The art is excellent. The jokes are great. Everything is goofy. They turn a demolished bridge into a car ramp. There's a chupacabra on the loose, eating pies. Uncle Pineapple talks through a buzzard with a top hat. It's insane.
So sure, you could pick up a comic to see Spider-Man get all angsty about his aunt, or pick up Batman to see a man recruit orphans for an inner-city war, or you could just pick up Moonshine Bigfoot #1 and witness a ridiculous car chase turn into a roadside bar party. Hellz yeah.
Action: 55/5
Grindhouse feel: 5/5
Scratch that cryptid itch: 4/5
Mourning for Burt Reynolds: 5/5
General free-loving abandon: 5/5
Verdict: Some comics give you a nuanced plot that unfolds over 12 issues. Some comics give you endless punching. This comic gives you serotonin-fueled euphoria. Buy immediately and tell your local comic shop you want this on your pull list, or else you'll drive a '71 Ford Custom 500 through their door.
