We’ve seen the fight. We’ve seen the mission. We know what’s at stake – the only question is, how did we get here? Find out, in The Moon is Following Us #2, created and drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson & Riley Rossmo, written by Daniel Warren Johnson, colored by Mike Spicer, and lettered by Shawn Lee.
“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality” – Lewis Carroll
Throughout history, the fantasy genre has been a portal through which readers can escape the overwhelming mundanity and tragedy of the real world. Fictional realms in which love and loss and war and death can be catalysts for heroism were, prior to the 21st century, central to the enduring appeal of fantasy fiction. But we in 2024 know too much. The power fantasy feels a little hollow as we move from one world of conflict, to look at our world that has become stranger, or at least crueller, than fiction. Given everything the 24-hour news cycle and hopeless doom-scrolling exposes our brains to each and every day, how could our innocence not be lost?
If this battle is lost then, what of the war? The one place we can surely still find solace is in the mind of a child. We as adults yearn to escape back to this place of innocence, before we return from Wonderland burdened with knowledge. If Alice’s fantastical escape from the “dull reality” of her impending womanhood in 19th century Britain, what is the cause of the infection to Penny’s mind in The Moon Is Following Us that traps her in dreams? There is a war raging for within her mind, but what’s at stake remains a mystery.
Two Worlds, One Moon?
The second issue of Daniel Warren Johnson and Riley Rossmo’s The Moon Is Following Us begins to pose some of these questions. The opening pages portray an idyllic experience of parenthood suddenly turned to tragedy, rendered beautifully by Daniel Warren Johnson. Just as parents Sam and Duncan reflect on a perfect day with their daughter playing in the park, every parent’s worst fear is realised. Penny has fallen into a sleep and won’t wake up. After a formal diagnosis describes her as “stuck in between her NREM and REM sleep cycles”, meaning that “her dreams are her new reality”, with no conventional treatment possible, they are distraught. Just as they begin to despair completely, they are contacted by the mystic Tash Severin, who transports them through the gate of dreams into the midst of a war in Penny’s mind. Sam and Duncan join the side of ‘The Resistance’, comprised of toys and other remnants of Penny’s life, who are preparing for a siege from ‘The Cascade’.
The mystery over what the ‘infection’ attacking Penny’s mind remains opaque because she’s absent from the narrative. The opening scene is undoubtedly from the parents’ perspective, and perhaps portrays an idealised version of their lives. This makes the impact of the page turn, which starts with Shawn Lee’s subtle lettering over a blacked out panel piercing through Duncan’s dream into waking world, and crescendos with complete and utter parental terror, hit so hard. Because we know so little about Penny’s state of mind, the precise nature of what in the real world may have caused her perma-dream state remains a mystery. Perhaps a trauma response to something Sam and Duncan were unaware of?
Although details about the Cascade’s motivations are scant, their opposition being called The Resistance implies that they are an invading force trying to take control of Penny’s mind, and are representative of this ill, whatever it is. Because of the dual track of fantasy and realism in this story, it seems likely that it originates from something happening in Penny’s life.
Fascinatingly, the only dialogue Penny has had during the series so far is “Mum… Dad… the moon is following us”, implying that the series’s title is a central piece of imagery to the overall story. My initial reading of the line was that it was an example of the power of a child’s imagination, to find wonder in the everyday rhythm of the world around us. After this issue it takes on a darker tone for me. It implies a looming threat that only Penny was cognisant of, a dark portent of what was to come. Or perhaps the moon is the ever present guiding light in the darkness; her parents watching over her.
Cascading dream gates
The liminal space between innocence and darkness, between the limitless and fantastical imagination of a child and the crushing realism of parenthood, is where the Moon Is Following Us thrives. The first issue allowed our imaginations to revel in an uncanny world of talking toads and magic cloaks before bringing us back down to earth with a bang. The second also lulls us into a false sense of security in the ‘real world’, before plunging the dreamworld, and us, into darkness.
All of this thematic and conceptual ambition is made possible by flawless execution from both Warren Johnson and Rossmo. Both artists manage to balance rich detail with propulsive action so beautifully, and while Rossmo’s fantasy world is astonishing in its playful imagination, Johnson plays with the reader’s emotions through facial expressions and body language. Mike Spicer’s colors augment both artists’ craft, creating a tonal consistency across the story that allows both artists to establish starker contrasts within their individual scenes. While Johnson’s scenes slowly drained of warmth and variety as Sam and Duncan’s joy saps away, the colors help sell the thematic undercurrent in Rossmo’s. The advancing forces of the genuinely scary Cascade invading the Resistance evokes the idea that the advancing darkness infecting Penny’s mind threatens to wash away the brightness of her childhood.
As great as both artists are individually, the page that blends both together is absolutely breathtaking. As Sam and Duncan are sent spiralling deeper and deeper into their daughter’s dreaming in a spectacular kaleidoscope of color, they are surrounded by an array symbols of their child’s subconscious. The images get more and more sinister the further they go, suggesting a dark truth as yet unrevealed as the connection between worlds is created. With fates aligned, we’re finally now ready to climb out of the darkness towards the light, guided by our limitless imagination and a gun-toting, cigar-smoking toad with an eye patch.
Jake Murray spends far too much time wondering if the New Mutants are OK. When he's not doing that, he can be found talking and writing about comics with anyone who will listen.
