High Moon Returns as Webcomic (Again)

Remember ZUDA Comics? The DC Comics imprint was sort of Comixology Submit before the giant digital distributor made it easier for creative teams to get their works in front of interested readers. One of the greater successes of ZUDA Comics was High Moon, the Harvey Award winning series by David Gallaher and Steve Ellis. Now--eight years after the series first debuted--the creative team are poised to bring High Moon back to readers. The HighMoonComic.com site officially launches today with the first 8 pages of the story and will now be serialized by Bottled Lightning Inc, the creative studio run by Gallaher and Ellis, with 4 new pages running every Monday. Later this year, the site will debut original content continuing the High Moon saga.

“With werewolves, gunslingers, and the sumptuous artwork of Steve Ellis," said Molly Crabapple, "HIGH MOON will change everything you thought you knew about the Old West.” In HIGH MOON, former Pinkerton agent and current bounty-hunter Matthew Macgregor investigates a series of strange happenings in a small Texas town. Drought has brought famine and hardship to Blest. The summer heat pushes the temperature to unbearable heights during the day. The nights are even worse-- for the streets are haunted by strange, unnatural creatures. And even as Macgregor works to uncover the truth about the creatures, he struggles to keep his own supernatural nature a secret.

“It’s a thrill to have HIGH MOON back online,” said Ellis. “I could not be more excited to illustrate stories about Macgregor as he explores the weird and wild west.”

High Moon will be available exclusively online and digitally. It is the second webcomic to be serialized by Bottled Lightning Inc, following the young adult webcomic The Only Living Boy which launched last year. The series will be available on the new mobile-responsive HighMoonComic.com site, Tapastic and Comixology; readers can support Bottled Lightning via its recently launched Patreon Fan Club.

“HIGH MOON was our first collaboration,” said Gallaher. “We have so many more Macgregor stories to tell and fans of both HIGH MOON and THE ONLY LIVING BOY can expect more announcements soon. 2015 is going to be a big year for Bottled Lightning.”

Full press release below.

HIGH MOON, the Harvey Award Winning Horror Western Webcomic 

by Creators David Gallaher and Steve Ellis 

Returns Online as Bottled Lightning Officially Launches HighMoonComic.Com  

February 25, 2015:  The popular and pioneering series HIGH MOON by writer David Gallaher and artist Steve Ellis returns online today. The Harvey Award winning webcomic combines the western and horror genres to create a “Stephen King vs. Sergio Leone mash-up” (Rue Morgue) that impressed fans and critics alike when it originally launched eight years ago as part of DC Comics’ initiative ZUDA Comics. The HighMoonComic.com site officially launches today with the first 8 pages of the story and will now be serialized by Bottled Lightning Inc, the creative studio run by Gallaher and Ellis, with 4 new pages running every Monday. Later this year, the site will debut original content continuing the HIGH MOON saga. 

Acclaimed writer/artist Molly Crabapple praised the horror western webcomic, “With werewolves, gunslingers, and the sumptuous artwork of Steve Ellis, HIGH MOON will change everything you thought you knew about the Old West.” In HIGH MOON, former Pinkerton agent and current bounty-hunter Matthew Macgregor investigates a series of strange happenings in a small Texas town. Drought has brought famine and hardship to Blest. The summer heat pushes the temperature to unbearable heights during the day. The nights are even worse-- for the streets are haunted by strange, unnatural creatures. And even as Macgregor works to uncover the truth about the creatures, he struggles to keep his own supernatural nature a secret.  

“It’s a thrill to have HIGH MOON back online,” said artist Steve Ellis. “I could not be more excited to illustrate stories about Macgregor as he explores the weird and wild west.” In addition to illustrating HIGH MOON, Ellis has been drawing the BETTER CALL SAUL webcomic for AMC. Ellis is known for his work for Wizards of the Coasts on Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering as well as for creating storyboard designs and final art for interactive comic role playing games for AMC TV’s Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead.  This coming weekend Ellis will be appearing at Long Beach Comic Expo where he will be one of the Special Guests recognized for their commitment to creating stories for kids and young adults across a wide array of media: animation, collectible cards, comics, prose novels, toys and web comics. 

HIGH MOON will be available exclusively online and digitally. It is the second webcomic to be serialized by Bottled Lightning Inc, following the young adult webcomic THE ONLY LIVING BOY which launched last year. The series will be available on the new mobile-responsive HighMoonComic.com site, Tapastic and Comixology; readers can support Bottled Lightning via its recently launched Patreon Fan Club. 

Ellis and Gallaher’s other collaborations include working on the first digital comics in the late 90s, developing the first comic made exclusively for the iPhone with BOX 13 and developing content for Marvel Unlimited. In addition to his work as Chief Creative Officer of  Bottled Lightning, Inc., David Gallaher has written for Marvel Comics and served as a consultant for Random House, The New York Police Department, and McGraw-Hill.  This spring, DC Entertainment will publish CONVERGENCE: GREEN LANTERN CORPS by Gallaher, Ellis and Ande Parks. 

“HIGH MOON was our first collaboration,” said Gallaher. “We have so many more Macgregor stories to tell and fans of both HIGH MOON and THE ONLY LIVING BOY can expect more announcements soon. 2015 is going to be a big year for Bottled Lightning.”  

PRAISE FOR HIGH MOON

“Full of werewolves, gunslinging, and Old West mysteries. . . . At its heart, “High Moon” is an epic of werewolves in the Old West, with the mysterious Conroy Macgregor operating on both sides of the law and often fighting creatures even more dangerous than himself.”-COMIC BOOK RESOURCES

“The Wild West has always been the setting to examine what happens when humanity abandons its rules. And the werewolf is an ideal path to explore the mind of a person who loses all self-control. The natural connection between those two elements is only the starting point for this engaging, intricately crafted western horror series. . . . Gallaher adeptly layers elements from many mythologies to create a rich melting pot of mysticism matching the diversity of settlers in the towns where the stories take place. Ellis's strong artwork captures the mysterious, lawless atmosphere, rising to the occasion whenever the tale calls for the reader to be frightened or awed.”--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 

“Blends spaghetti westerns, hard-boiled detective fiction, werewolf B-flicks and Weird Menace pulps. You can almost taste the dust and smell the blood. Pass the popcorn, please."- Kevin Burton Smith, THRILLING DETECTIVE MAGAZINE

“Fantastic art, amazing werewolves, and an interesting, well-paced story make HIGH MOON well worth checking out"- WEREWOLF NEWS

“Every character is so fantastically realized from concept to design to execution, that's its hard not to get lost in the pages.”- Broken Frontier

“Highly original… combines a fast paced storyline with moody art that nails the head for this horror western.”- About.com

“Gallaher has a Mignola-esque feel to his storytelling, the sort of…old pulp storytelling brought into modern times… Ellis provides a perfect balance to Gallaher’s tales, emphasizing frenetic action well and gruesome scenes with sometimes intricate detail.” - COMIC OVERLOAD

“Reads like a cross between a Sergio Leone western and a gore-laced monster movie…. Ellis’ gorgeous red-and-blue-hued panels are a delight to behold.”-BOOKLIST

“One of the TOP 100 GREATEST WEBCOMICS OF ALL TIME!”- ComixTalk