Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, Volume 2

Edited by Hope Nicholson and published by the indigenous-run Alternative History Comics Inc., Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, Volume 2 is the second installment of the award-winning comic collection of short graphic novel stories that is the answer to every Indigi-nerd’s prayers.

From “They Who Walk As Lightning,” by Elizabeth LaPensée and Richard Pace, Moonshot Volume 2.

Moonshot’s stories and art come from a wide range of writers and artists, including. Even Tanya Tagaq, the renowned throat singer contributed a story.

With a lovely forward by James Leask, and beginning with “Indian Planet” by Stephen Gladue, the first comic in the volume kicks off with an intriguing question: what would a planet without industry look like?

What follows is a series of wonderfully illustrated, aesthetically and conceptually diverse Native comics that imagine a world in the not-too-distant future. Worlds that could be ours, now. Alternative realities and best of all — Indians in Space.

Each one hits hard with traditional-turned-modern stories with a sci-fi or fantasy twist. There is “The Boys Who Become Hummingbirds” by Daniel Heath Justice, a queer dystopia turned utopia that takes us into an alternative reality.

From “The Boys Who Become Hummingbirds” by Daniel Heath Justice.

From “Worst Bargain In Town,” by Darcie Little Badger.

Then there’s Darcie Little Badger’s “Worst Bargain in Town,” which punches forward with Native pride, and speaks to the experiences two woman have battling an evil hair-eating-hair-dresser in a small town.

The stand out piece in the collection for this Indigi-nerd, is Tanya Tagaq’s “9 Mile Lake,” an extended vignette about a childhood memory. Evocative, sad and incredibly beautifully written, it begins “My little cousin you were only seven years old” and ends with you wondering why you haven’t heard of this writer before.

The collection finishes with “Journeys,” written and illustrated by Jeffery Veregge, which features inter-dimensional travel that takes us back to some of the original forms of travel (and has super cool retro-looking illustrations to boot). From stories about the Water Protectors, to Wolverines, to ones about the ways in which we should be treating the earth, this collection is a wonderful jaunt into worlds both familiar and strange.

From “Journeys,” by Jeffrey Veregge.