“I’d never thought much about the moon before I got this job. But I love it here. I can spend hours just looking out at the stars and the rocks. It makes me feel very peaceful.”
About
“Living on the moon . . . Whatever were we thinking? . . . It seems so silly now.”
The lunar colony is slowly winding down, like a small town circumvented by a new super highway. As our hero, the Mooncop, makes his daily rounds, his beat grows ever smaller, the population dwindles. A young girl runs away, a dog breaks off his leash, an automaton wanders off from the Museum of the Moon.
Stats
- Hardcover
- 94 pages
- Published September 20th 2016 by Drawn and Quarterly
- Original TitleMooncop
- ISBN1770462546 (ISBN13: 9781770462540)
- Edition Language English

Awards
- Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Nominee for Best Graphic Album
- Best Writer/Artist (for Tom Gauld), and Best Lettering (for Tom Gauld) (2017)
My Thoughts
This is tiny, and I mean really tiny melancholy story about a cop who lives in a now-defunct colony on the moon. Everyone is leaving the colony and heading for parts unknown. This leaves the cop with decreasingly less and less to do. Until he is almost the only person left… almost. I don’t want to give anything away about how this story ends up. However, the ending has a bittersweet tinge with a splash of hope. Perfect for the timbre of the story.

The artwork is simple and subdued. It is odd how it is drawn, almost so stark that you believe it to be the desolate land of the moon. I think if it had been drawn any other way, it would have been too fancy for this story. As it stands it is perfectly rendered to convey the almost ennui of the cop.
I recommend this. Plus, donuts play a bit of a roll so you can’t go wrong.
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Nice one Beth! I just discovered you and I dig your style. This comic book reminds me of Le facteur de l’espace (Space Postman) not only because of the theme but also the artwork. I will absolutely check it out… if I can find it!
Nice thanks! Now I have to go find Space Postman. I really dig the minimalistic style in graphic novels. If you can eloquently get your point across in a minimalist style, then your writing has to be good.
Exactly, sometimes less is more!
Right! Have you read any Jason’s stories? I killed Adolf Hitler is pretty great. Same sort of minimalist style.
Such crisp lines. What’s not to love!? On the same order, La guerre des arts is in a class of its own. Too bad it’s only available in French 🙁
Challenge! I bet there is a translated version somewhere.
I loved this little book.
Same. It was so subtle and calm, but lovely to read.