Daisy Goes to the Moon

Artist Rick Geary turns his pen from vintage true crime to whimsy in his graphic novel adaptation of Daisy Goes to the Moon, a novella written by Mathew Klickstein and inspired by the real-life Victorian author Daisy Ashford''s successfully published juvenilia, written with the help of her parents: The Young Visiters. The Geary version stars little Daisy herself and pastiches everything in his unique visual stylisation from Alice in Wonderland to Peter Pan to The Wizard of Oz to late-19th-century/early-20th-century comics: Daisy is lured to adventure by a ''rokitship'' as she decides to go to the moon with a man named Mr. Z. They encounter many-eyed monsters, time travellers with TVs, her duplicate, a ''troobador,'' her sister, and more delights and vexations. Geary places his expressive, clean-line black-and-white figures, each with distinct body language, in ornate frames to denote settings and narrative layers. There''s verbal and physical comedy as characters (sometimes literally) bounce off each other. Geary''s rare artistic gift of being able to depict ornate period detail without sacrificing storytelling clarity or fun pairs perfectly with Klickstein''s imaginative writing. Showcasing elements of Philip K. Dick, Douglas Adams, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the book will delight readers as they discover Daisy''s playful, madcap space adventures.