While we're waiting for this Friday's action packed installment of the Moon Prince, I thought it might be fun to show you a few of my influences in writing this part of the story. The idea to have bat-people on the Moon actually goes back all the way to 1835, to a famous hoax published in the old
New York Sun that claimed astronomers had spotted creatures on the lunar surface using an enormous new telescope. Wonderful drawings of these bat-men were published and caused a huge stir at the time. Here are a few of them:
You can read a fascinating article about the Great Moon Hoax
here.
And my list of influences for this part of the story wouldn't be complete without mentioning Jack Kirby's great comics series
Kamandi the Last Boy on Earth, which I devoured as a kid. The ninth issue of the story featured bat people battling astronauts in a balloon! Here's the cover (you can click on any of these images for larger versions):
