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Moonshine #1-5
Moonshine: The Complete Collection
Collecting the hit crime horror hit series in one complete volume, MOONSHINE tells the story of LOU PIRLO, a city-slick "torpedo" sent from New York City to negotiate a deal with the best moonshiner in Appalachia, one HIRAM HOLT. Lou figures it for milk run -- what Lou doesn't figure on is that Holt is just as cunning and ruthless as any NYC crime boss and Lou is in way over his pin-striped head. Because not only will Holt do anything to protect his illicit booze operation, he'll stop at nothing to protect a much darker family secret...a bloody, supernatural secret that must never see the light of day...or better still, the light of the full moon. Once bitten and cursed by the werewolf, Lou must travel to the darkest bayous of New Orleans, escape a murderous chain gang along the Mississippi, dodge a serial killer in Cleveland and finally return to his native New York all in search of cure …that is IF he wants to be cured! This definitive hardcover collection includes the entire Moonshine series and never-before-seen bonus materials! Reuniting the acclaimed creative team that defined modern crime comics with Vertigo’s 100 Bullets...who now put a horror-twist on a classic gangster tale in a book that Nerdist called “damn near perfect!” Collects MOONSHINE #1-28
664 pages, Hardcover
Published October 24, 2023
3 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Brian Azzarello
1,295 books1,109 followersBrian Azzarello (born in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. He and Argentine artist Eduardo Risso, with whom Azzarello first worked on Jonny Double, won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story for 100 Bullets #15–18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low".
Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City", art by Risso; "Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire", art by Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, & Mick Gray) and Superman ("For Tomorrow", art by Jim Lee).
In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin.
As of 2007, Azzarello is married to fellow comic-book writer and illustrator Jill Thompson.
information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Az...
Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City", art by Risso; "Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire", art by Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, & Mick Gray) and Superman ("For Tomorrow", art by Jim Lee).
In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin.
As of 2007, Azzarello is married to fellow comic-book writer and illustrator Jill Thompson.
information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Az...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 9, 2025
Whiskey, werewolves and wise guys war in the wretched world of Moonshine. It’s dark fantasy meets noir, and for me the werewolves put it a howl above the rest. The artwork is utter perfection.
July 27, 2024
(Zero spoiler review)
I started to read Moonshine a couple of years ago in the trades and it didn't click with me. I could chalk it up to being slightly older and slightly wiser, but it's more than likely I had not long finished 100 Bullets and threw the toys out of the pram because it wasn't instantly as outstanding as that was. Either way, Moonshine a couple of years later was a much more enticing and enjoyable prospect than it 2022 OmniBen apparently found it. Sure, Eduardo Risso's art could make even the most dog shit story infinitely better, but this is solid stuff from Azzarello, especially given some of his recent less than stellar output. Faithless (I always go to call it Loveless for some reason), I'm looking squarely in your despicable direction.
Southern noir done well enough is not a genre there is enough of in this medium, so you could forgive me for enjoying this somewhat more than others seemingly have, but Moonshine, although a bit narratively messy and unfocused at times, is still some damn good independent comics. And I'll never turn my nose up at some damn good independent comics. Especially when Eduardo Risso is on art. 4/5
OmniBen.
I started to read Moonshine a couple of years ago in the trades and it didn't click with me. I could chalk it up to being slightly older and slightly wiser, but it's more than likely I had not long finished 100 Bullets and threw the toys out of the pram because it wasn't instantly as outstanding as that was. Either way, Moonshine a couple of years later was a much more enticing and enjoyable prospect than it 2022 OmniBen apparently found it. Sure, Eduardo Risso's art could make even the most dog shit story infinitely better, but this is solid stuff from Azzarello, especially given some of his recent less than stellar output. Faithless (I always go to call it Loveless for some reason), I'm looking squarely in your despicable direction.
Southern noir done well enough is not a genre there is enough of in this medium, so you could forgive me for enjoying this somewhat more than others seemingly have, but Moonshine, although a bit narratively messy and unfocused at times, is still some damn good independent comics. And I'll never turn my nose up at some damn good independent comics. Especially when Eduardo Risso is on art. 4/5
OmniBen.
October 15, 2024
Great fun. Gory, thrilling and erotic. The kind of thing that would make a great tv show.
June 30, 2025
As a MAJOR fan of Brian Azzarello, I found this one to be a bit disappointing, and VERY confusing. I'm glad I own all five trades of this series, as I'm sure this will be one of my "re-read to redeem" comics, where I'll read a graphic novel for a second to thirtieth time, and then finally enjoy it just as much as I thought I would the first time. Sometimes, like what I hope will happen with Moonshine, I'll read it again somewhere down the line and understand more and more about what's going on. This is one of those comics that truly feel as though the first draft was what ended up getting published, and Image Comics being a "creators first" publisher to the nth degree means that's entirely possible what ended up happening. Maybe it was due to Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso having other commitments and thus just going with their first draft in order to meet the initial deadlines. However, the best compliment I can give this comic series is the artwork is absolutely phenomenal. Anybody who likes ER's artwork will NOT be disappointed.
At the end of the day, I give Moonshine a recommendation. Not as high a recommendation as I would give to his other works (yes even his Batman run), but a substantial enough one. A 6.5/10
At the end of the day, I give Moonshine a recommendation. Not as high a recommendation as I would give to his other works (yes even his Batman run), but a substantial enough one. A 6.5/10
May 10, 2024
Gangsters, werewolves, and booze…how did they screw that up?
Moonshine: The Complete Collection by Brian Azzarello was a crime horror comic set in the late 1920s and 30s.
Handsome Lou was a New York mobster sent to West Virginia to lock in a supply of high end booze. What follows is a bloodbath involving magic, shapeshifters, and other psychos…
And it really wasn’t that interesting.
I LOVED 100 bullets (by the same creative team), but this book got frustrating as it hopped along different threads without properly developing them, had some confusing action scenes, had art that made a lot of characters look the same, and didn’t have much meet on the bone.
As the story makes usual time hops (bizarre ones that make zero sense) across West Virginia, the swamp, Cleveland, and New York, it follows a couple different character but barely gives you a reason to care.
Why did it take so long to get to something, only to then abandon a plot and pursue something else.
I really wanted to like this book, and it started off interesting but it quickly got tedious with its disinterest in explaining anything or trying to do anything that couldn’t be found in a stereotypical gangster story.
Moonshine: The Complete Collection by Brian Azzarello was a crime horror comic set in the late 1920s and 30s.
Handsome Lou was a New York mobster sent to West Virginia to lock in a supply of high end booze. What follows is a bloodbath involving magic, shapeshifters, and other psychos…
And it really wasn’t that interesting.
I LOVED 100 bullets (by the same creative team), but this book got frustrating as it hopped along different threads without properly developing them, had some confusing action scenes, had art that made a lot of characters look the same, and didn’t have much meet on the bone.
As the story makes usual time hops (bizarre ones that make zero sense) across West Virginia, the swamp, Cleveland, and New York, it follows a couple different character but barely gives you a reason to care.
Why did it take so long to get to something, only to then abandon a plot and pursue something else.
I really wanted to like this book, and it started off interesting but it quickly got tedious with its disinterest in explaining anything or trying to do anything that couldn’t be found in a stereotypical gangster story.
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October 15, 2025Has such good bones for a premise - Prohibition-era Appalachian bootlegging with werewolves? sign me up! - and then as many of these reviews have implied, it gets lost. And then gets lost again. And then just keeps getting lost in additional plots - Boardwalk Empire gangsters, chain gangs, New Orleans voodoo, Cleveland serial killers - which it attempts to pull together in the final issues, but without much sucess. For a 28 issue series, it just seems like there's too much going on for Azzarello to set a focus, and while Risso's art is as strong as it was by the end of 100 Bullets, it feels like there's something missing - Lou just isn't that compelling of a character that I care too deeply what happens to him on an emotional level and that's all we're ultimately left with. A definitive case of losing yourself in the sauce and then finding out it's only Ragu.
January 9, 2025
Moonshine was heavily recommended to me. Between noir, gangsters, werewolves, alcohol, and everything in between, it felt like a supernatural spin on crime noir was going to be for me. After reading, it didn’t hit like I wanted to, I felt the plot lost itself over the different issues. I wish I had liked it more, but felt it was overhyped to what I like about crime noir stories. It’s an alright read, 3 stars is a fair rating in my opion. Not amazing, not terrible, just ok.
November 6, 2025
Werewolves during the Prohibition era in the US - a bloodbath.
Handsome Joe Pirlo finds himself involved in gang warfare and moonshine hillbillies with some predictable results. There’s werewolves, voodoo as well as the obligatory shoot-outs. I lost count of the accumulating bodies! It’s entertaining enough with few likeable characters. Sex, blood and the supernatural.
Handsome Joe Pirlo finds himself involved in gang warfare and moonshine hillbillies with some predictable results. There’s werewolves, voodoo as well as the obligatory shoot-outs. I lost count of the accumulating bodies! It’s entertaining enough with few likeable characters. Sex, blood and the supernatural.
December 13, 2023
Great story, just a minor complaint: dear American publishers and authors, please, stop trying to use Italian words and expressions when you don’t know the language. Every dialogue in Italian is grammatically wrong, or even worse mixed with Spanish words
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews