Rick Geary turns his pen from vintage true crime to whimsy in Daisy Goes to the Moon, an adaptation of a novella written by Mathew Klickstein inspired by the real-life Victorian author Daisy Ashford’s successfully published juvenilia, co-written with her parents. Geary’s version stars little Daisy herself and pastiches everything in his unique visual stylization from Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz to late-19th-century and 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 travelers with TVs, her duplicate, a “troobador,” 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 rollicking 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-Exupéry, the book will delight readers as they discover Daisy's playful, madcap space adventures.
