I generally found the contemporary sequences more effective than the settler scenes – in large part because the modern characters are more distinctly established – though you can definitely see artist Talbert enjoying himself with the period imagery. His art heavily recalls Spain Rodriquez in places, though I could also detect the influence of another sixties undergrounder, S. Clay Wilson, in the battle scene tableaux – especially the frenzied half-page panels where settlers and native creatures fight to the bloody death. A few of the panels with Ben and his parents also have an old-fashioned children's book appearance: a Turn-of-the-20th-Century picture book rendition of Little Red Riding Hood, say. It's effectively expressive, even when the wolf heads are rendered larger than they by rights ought to be.

Removed from its historical/mythological underpinnings, First Moon reads like a family-sized updating of I Was A Teenage Werewolf – with a slice of Harry Potter thrown in for good measure. (Ben's travels to the land of his ancestors partially involve riding a frontier version of the Hogwarts Express.)

If McNamara & Talbert's treatment of their material is more calculatedly domesticated than I'd like (the contemporary story is book-ended with discussions about Ben getting a dog to ironically punctuate this emphasis), well, perhaps I'm being the hard-core horror fan here. Taken on its own terms, First Moon is a well-charted graphic story that makes smart use of its historical back tale. Though how our lupine hero and his parents get from Berkeley, Ca., to a curséd settlement originally placed off the Virginia coast is beyond me.