Panel from Low Moon by Jason
Anyone else been reading Low Moon, the serialized comic in the New York Times Sunday Magazine? It’s the tale of a sheriff’s nervous preparation for a chess match with a mysterious man from his past. Set in the generic “old West,” you can almost hear the saloon door’s creaky swing as you read.
It’s a slow-to-develop story, thin on words, and that’s what I like most. The plot features desperation befitting a Chris Ware series, but fuses the tenseness with the wacky visual language of early comics. Take the panel above: here’s a key moment in the narrative, and the surprise of Bill McGill’s return is symbolized by the character’s hat shooting straight off his head.
Too cheap to slap down a fin for the Sunday New York Times? No problem. The entire series is available online.