Review -- Tim Gibson's MOTH CITY #6

Moth City #6

(Tim Gibson)

I keep coming back to Tim Gibson's Moth City as there keeps being more to say about it, which is a testament to its conception as much as its execution. Issue six of this eight issue series has just hit the digital "stands" (as it were), and this one had me choking as it wrapped its fingers across my throat. Moth City has been a brutal series. As it careens towards its conclusion, though, the depravity of its brutality becomes far more than just two words with a nice end rhyme. When the acts of the living are more horrifying than those of the undead, you're treading on some thick moral carpet. Perhaps it is lime green shag and it hasn't been vacuumed in awhile. You don't expect me to sleep on that do you? I have allergies, and I fear what is certainly sloughed off therein.

As a storyteller, Gibson continues to demonstrate his command of his medium and his unique digital niche therein. His story unfolds like the linen your grandmother kept on the top of the closet for the “good guests”, creased but special, important and soft, tough but lace delicate.

There's the requisite action here, but this is really not an action comic, and, to be honest, Gibson draws a lousy fight scene. What propels Moth City #6 are the jarring moments when people do unspeakable things to those they hate, but more so, to those they love.

“You were never going to leave, Glitter. You don't have what it takes to make the hard decisions.”

It's chilling what the main character does in the name of protecting what is his. It's a step into maddens, surely, but if the world you inhabit has already blown up bat-shit crazy, then taking this step is the only way to move forward. It's a dance, as it were, and Gibson is playing one hell of a beat.

In this issue, Gibson really wants to put the focus on the character Jun, an infected who is trying to protect his family, but here the story expands and travels roads we've seen on the maps your dad kept in the glovebox – you know they exist, you just haven't had the balls to go sightseeing yet. The true emotional center of this book is the character of McCaw, who has been traveling down his own highway throughout this series, and it's a route that grows darker and darker with each passing moment.

Gibson may be suggesting that it is the savage and merciless who are the only ones who can accomplish anything in a morally relativistic world. Single-mindedness and the gumption to do anything to justify means to cement ends are valued in a world where we are all eating each other alive.

Like I said, this series doesn't tread lightly.

So take a ride down to this Moth City. The grass ain't green and nothing is pretty.

You can purchase Moth City #6 on Comixology. And if you are new to the series, Gibson is now offering Moth City #1 for free – and who doesn't like free comics?