Blue Moon

Ben Gilboa is a graphic designer from Tel Aviv, Isreal. We interviewed him about his brand new graphic novel, Blue Moon, which is available on a pay-what-you want basis. Click here to check it out.

Blue Moon is your first graphic novel. What made you decide to create it?

I have two older brothers, and that meant I grew up surrounded by mountains of Tin-Tin and Asterix comic books. I remember looking at the pictures before I knew how to read and making up the words. I loved comics ever since.

About a year ago an image came to me, crystallizing slowly over a few days. A boy and a girl young and in love, kissing on a boat in the middle of a lake with a bright, full moon towering above. But something was wrong. The girl wasn’t a girl. She wasn’t even real.

This image stuck in my head, the story emerging around it. I knew I had something I was willing to go all in on.

What is it about?

Blue Moon is a psychological horror story about growing up and making choices. Who you want to be, and what to let go.

The story follows Tim. He’s a young, lonely boy. He’s got one friend, the only person who really knows and gets him. The doctors say she’s not real, that she’s all in his head. But what if she isn’t? How long has it taken you to complete, and what was the process like? Creating a graphic novel is like running a marathon. I knew it was going to take a long time, and that there would be times when I would resent myself for ever thinking of doing it. I knew I had to pace myself, and keep my focus on finishing it, because the work only counts when it’s done.

It took me around 700 hours, spread over 9 months. On average, that’s a little more than 2.5 hours per day, every day.

So it was hard, frustrating and often annoying. But it was also fulfilling, energizing and kinda great.

Why did you choose the psychological horror genre and the particular themes you address in the novel?

The first thing I came up with for Blue Moon is that image of Tim and his friend under the full moon. It carried a very specific tone to it, a feeling that guided me throughout the project. It was loneliness - wanting to connect but afraid of what that connection could bring. And that was all a result of Tim’s personality and struggles. So the genre wasn’t a choice, it was a part of the concept. This couldn’t have been a comedy or an adventure story. This was always about Tim’s inner demons, his inner horrors, and the choices they compel him to make.

I tried to approach the story in a naturalistic way - no genre cliches, no big scary moments. I tried to let the story unfold, the fantastical elements seeping into the mundane reality, because horror should never be forced or over-played. It should be something unavoidable, not imposed, if that makes sense.

Tell us about the ‘pay as you want’ model.

Blue Moon is offered for free unless you decide otherwise. That’s because I want people to read it, to give it a chance. I want to share it with anyone and everyone.

Money is nice but it’s not the point - I didn’t work so hard trying to earn some bucks. I just wanted to make something good, worthwhile and special, and I think I did that. I don’t want anyone passing that chance because of a couple of bucks. What are your personal favourite graphic novels?

Two of the biggest influences on Blue Moon are Jeff Lemire and Charles Burns. Lemire has created amazing comics like Essex County and Underwater Welder. He creates amazing human characters, his artwork simple yet understated. Charles Burns did Black Hole, which is an amazing graphic novel, rich with layers of meaning and breathtaking art.

Do you have plans to create another graphic novel?

I’ll always create comics. Right now I’m in the middle of a new graphic novella. It’s going to be about 48 pages long, so to make my life harder, I decided to do it in full color. Do you have any advice for anyone that would like to create their own?

Read everything a lot. And start small - short stories building to longer and longer projects. And get advice from more talented people than me!

BLUE MOON 

WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY BEN GILBOA

Blue Moon is the first book that I’ve read in awhile that I related to in such a way that after finishing the book, I reflected on some of my own personal experiences through Ben Gilboa’s fascinating one shot graphic novel.

The novel doesn’t say much through dialog where most books do. It instead opts for readers to engage and to feel for its main character Tim by its illustrations between him and everyone he interacts with. Tim is a clinically depressed teen who has spent his entire summer talking to and becoming friends with a part of his imagination that he’s supposed to be taking medication to suppress it all. It’s shattered his relationship between his father and has prevented anything from budding with anyone else outside of his own head. 

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His father wants him to be a part of something other than his thoughts, but to Tim, that’s the most terrifying and crippling thing he could think of and now that he’s back in school after the summer off, things get hard for him. Trying to meet his dad halfway is a journey in its own, but to function in the world and forge friendships, he’s staring down a list to join the debate club when he meets Joan, a girl who has a wicked taste in movies and a keen interest in Tim.

Joan and Tim get close until his “friend” becomes jealous of the two since Tim has made way too many commitments to too many people and is simply preoccupied with everything else to make time for someone who may or not exist. Time passes and the two are in a healthy relationship that’s budding into something spectacular when he decides it’s time to tell her about the medicine, the illness, and just about everything else he deals with which elevates the two’s bond and brings the relationship to new heights.

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To avoid massive spoilers, we’ll save you the last chapter to explore on your own with an ending that is just about as crazy as things can get in a comic that prides itself in insanity and raw human emotion. Finding Blue Moon was a blessing and Ben Gilboa tells a story that is easily relateable and strangely perfect. 

One could say that the art is too simple and doesn’t fit that complex mold of Tim, but that’s what makes everything flow until the end of the book. The minimalistic style and the black and white illustrations glow in a dark, hazy aura of depression and self-conflict until the realization and pain of the cataclysmic ending. If anything, the art puts you in the depressed atmosphere more so than the writing that doesn’t do a whole lot for the book with its few words to progress that narrative along its chapters.

Blue Moon is an interesting read that I personally found fitting and welcoming with its art and story progression even if the writing was bit too simple to really find its ground and create depth to the characters. With that being said, a little imagination can go a long way if you can interpret the art the way Gilboa intended. I would recommend Blue Moon seven days out of the week and it shows us that the indie world is bleeding creativity and stories that need to be put out there.

And they liked it!