Jen Storm joins Interviews Editor, Andrew Irvin, to discuss her emotional new graphic novel, Little Moons, released now through Highwater Press. (Warning: the graphic novel this interview discusses includes subjects concerning the disappearance of indigenous women and systemic racial violence)
COMIC BOOK YETI: Jen, thanks for making time to stop by the Yeti Cave. My brother is up in Saskatchewan right now (so I know hockey season is getting going), but how are things over the border in Manitoba?
JEN STORM: Things are great here! I’ve been spending a lot of time in my own cave since I’m currently two weeks postpartum with a lovely baby girl. The weather has been beautiful for pre-fall walks with a coffee in hand and a stroller. It’s a lovely time to be out and about, soaking in the sights and enjoying the fresh air!
CBY: Congratulations on your daughter's arrival! We certainly appreciate you finding time to chat with a newborn to look after. To start, without spoilers, I want to make mention of the way in which you’ve presented in Little Moons a heart-wrenching story that leaves the reader looking for a closure that never comes. I know this is meant to convey a small hint of the feeling that so many members of Indigenous communities face across North America, where they face disproportionate victimhood without justice. You’ve addressed some of these issues in your content warning and afterword, but for our audience who hasn’t read Little Moons yet, what else can you add to help people understand what they’ll encounter when cracking this comic open?
JS: Outside of the main storyline, I hope readers not only see the family dynamic but also the complicated relationship between ourselves, our loved ones, and our reactions to grief. It’s not always ideal or pretty, and I wanted to tell a story that didn't pretend we are always behaving the way we wish we could. There is also the relationship between ourselves and our traditions and the way we nurture that relationship to find comfort.
CBY: Thank you for setting the tone appropriately to continue. Let’s turn towards your colleagues on Little Moons, since they haven’t joined us for this interview. Ryan Howe, Alice RL, and Nickolej Villiger all contributed to the creative team. Can you speak a bit about how everyone became involved in this project? I know Alice RL was involved in the Highwater Press release, Between the Pipes, that I recently covered, but what’s the story behind the team?
JS: The team is so incredibly talented and has risen up to the challenges this story uncovered. I appreciate their work so much. It was actually our publisher, Highwater Press, who brought us together as a creative team, and the lovely Irene Velentzas, who was the creative editor on this project who kept us all on task and ensured it was the best final version it could possibly be. She’s amazing to work with!
CBY: There are so many moments of interaction within the family that read with a familiarity and depth of understanding that make implicit the relationships between the characters. You mentioned your son inspiring Theo’s character, and the title, Little Moons, is derived from his experience with, and interpretations of, the spirit world. Who else was an inspiration that you would attribute to these characters’ relationships?
JS: I can't say that anyone else outright inspired other characters, but at the same time, many interactions come together to inspire a character and their experience. I think we can recognize these characters in our own lives. They carry a sense of collective experience, informed by the interactions and relationships I’ve observed over the years. Whether it's a moment of quiet resilience in a family member or the way a community rallies together in times of hardship, I see these influences in the way the characters respond to the world around them. So while no single person or relationship inspired each character, they all carry pieces of the people and connections that have shaped my understanding of family and community.
CBY: It was certainly salient throughout, scene after scene. Speaking about the spirit world, and the phenomena of Little Moons, what other aspects or manifestations of the spirit world have factored into your storytelling? Are there other stories you’re working on with supernatural elements or draw upon motifs or characters from myths and legends of the Ojibwe?
JS: Yes, I’d say so. I worked on a story in This Place: 150 Years Retold, in which there was a supernatural element of a wendigo. It was based on the true story of Jack Fiddler, who in 1906 was arrested for the alleged murder of a wendigo, and his suicide before trial marked the beginning of the imposition of Canadian law on the Sucker People. I was so inspired by the story that I retold it from the perspective of the woman wendigo. In that story, the supernatural was not just a backdrop but a way to explore complex themes of colonial violence, survival, and transformation. Similarly, in Little Moons, I draw upon the connection between the physical and spirit worlds to show how they intersect in both beautiful and unsettling ways. While I haven’t yet started another project with overt supernatural elements, I feel drawn to stories that challenge the boundaries between the seen and unseen. The Ojibwe legends and teachings I grew up with often remind me that the supernatural is not so separate from our everyday lives, and I think those ideas will continue to inform the way I approach storytelling.
CBY: If this is any indication of the approach you intend to take with incorporating supernatural themes in your work, we've got some brilliant stories to look forward to in the future. You describe grief as “love with nowhere to go,” which I found to be an apt and poignant framing of the feeling. This is not an easy read, because the reaction to grief and the love without direction from each character isn’t necessarily carried forward in the most transparent or rational way. In my research, I contend a lot with concepts of avoided cost, and I know at core, the effort is towards preventing scenarios that result in the compounding of grief, contending with damages both personal and structural. To whatever extent you feel comfortable, might you speak a bit further about your relationship with grief and ways of finding a place to direct love in the face of loss?
JS: It’s hard to give any advice on grieving. I've seen people I love grieve in beautiful ways and in destructive ways, all of which were painful. For myself, I found a form of release in painting. When I lost someone close to me, I just painted—almost obsessively at times. I think, looking back, it gave me a sense of control and a way to externalize what I was feeling. The process of creating something visual brought into perspective how little time we have with one another and how precious our time here is. That loss partially contributed to my decision to leave a job I didn’t enjoy, and I took almost a year to just write and paint. It was a year marked by losses and change, and painting became a cathartic ritual, a way to give shape to something I couldn’t quite put into words.
I know art or creative expression isn’t for everyone, but finding a way to direct that energy—whether it’s through storytelling, movement, or something as simple as tending a garden—can help navigate grief. I’ve also seen loved ones hold onto anger for a long time during their grief. It seemed to prolong their heartbreak, but I believe that anger was their way of honouring what was lost. It was their way of keeping the connection alive. Grief is a deeply personal journey. There’s no prescribed path to follow. I think it’s more about allowing yourself to move through it in your own way, while also finding something, however small, that helps you keep moving forward.
CBY: Thank you for reflecting on a topic that isn't always easy to discuss. You’ve also nested another creative exercise within this story; beading. You take the chance to go through the basic process of aligning and stitching down the beads, and its role as a point of pride and a practice tied to familial memories is an important aspect of expression for characters within the family for different reasons. What other traditional practices might you have otherwise showcased, and what led you to decide upon beading as the point of relation?
JS: Painting, definitely! But I think beading, painting, writing, stitching—they all have the same qualities. They’re hands-on, tactile processes, and anything you create comes with some introspection and daydreaming. These practices become a conversation with yourself, where your thoughts can wander and settle. I’ve made art in all sorts of moods—happy, angry, grieving—and no matter what, it’s always felt like a bit of a healing process. Even though I’m not the most skilled beader myself, I can see why it would have the same effect.
I chose beading because it’s so deeply rooted in our culture, passed down through generations, and it’s often the first form of artistic expression that many of us connect with as children. It’s a language that’s familiar and personal. Beading is more than just the finished piece; it’s a practice tied to memory and to people. The act of sitting down, choosing colors, and working the thread through each bead can bring back voices and faces of family members who taught us. It’s a way to carry forward a shared history, even if our beads or stitches aren’t perfect. That’s why it felt like the right choice for this story—it allowed the characters to connect with the past, express themselves, and move through their emotions in a way that’s inherently familiar.
CBY: Regarding an exploration of the familiar, your protagonist, Reanna, struggles to understand her mother, Andrea, and her motives throughout the story. Children navigating confusing circumstances without clear direction from the adults they rely upon is coupled with the added dimension of the rural/reservation divide from urban life that Andrea seeks to bridge. Positional value, displacement, and sense of belonging are topics you tackle both implicitly and explicitly throughout Little Moons. What aspects of community and cultural immersion would you like to detail further here beyond what you share within the pages of your graphic novel?
JS: There are times we run from who we are, and other times we run towards it. I find that the knowledge that I belong to my community brings me a sense of comfort, especially when I feel lost. Many people I know who spend most of their time in their community can sometimes find it to be a place they want to escape from when times get tough. A change in scenery can provide a momentary distraction from pain or struggles. But ultimately, knowing there’s a home and a place where you and your ancestors come from—where your roots run deep—is a source of strength. It’s something I think we all find comfort in, even if we only return in our hearts.
This feeling of belonging isn’t necessarily tied to a single location but rather to a sense of community and identity. In Little Moons, I wanted to explore that complex relationship we have with “home,” which can be both a place of safety and a place we feel the need to distance ourselves from, depending on what we’re going through. Sometimes we push away from it to understand ourselves better or to experience life outside of its boundaries, and other times we long for it as a grounding force.
For Reanna and Andrea, this tension plays out in different ways. Andrea is navigating a world outside the reserve and struggling to bridge those worlds, while Reanna is trying to understand how she fits into all of it. Cultural immersion, then, isn’t just about language or tradition—it’s about feeling anchored to something larger than yourself, whether or not you’re physically present in that space. It’s a feeling that doesn’t just come from proximity, but from a shared history and understanding that you can carry within you, no matter where you go.
CBY: In the city, you introduce a white Canadian character from outside the Ojibwe community. There’s an immediate “othering” that occurs which will not seem unfamiliar to anyone who has encountered people acting in the blind spots that white privilege creates. You portray the line walked between overt racism and passive/structural racism in this key scene. Which elements were pulled from lived experience, and for our readers who may not be in the habit of identifying the structural racism in which they’re mired, what signifiers or behaviours associated with systemic injustice can we shed light upon and deconstruct from (both within and beyond) Little Moons?
JS: The character is almost a caricature of racism and sexism. I would be more surprised if people didn’t recognize an encounter or person who treated them or others in this way. He embodies those everyday microaggressions and overt aggressions that many Indigenous people and people of color experience. Tom also represents what we tolerate and sometimes even welcome into our lives when we aren’t fully honouring ourselves and who we are.
For readers unfamiliar with these dynamics, it’s important to recognize that racism isn’t always the blatant, easily identifiable acts we see in textbooks or news headlines. It’s often the small, everyday actions or words that suggest Indigenous people are “less than,” whether it’s assuming we’re incapable, questioning our presence in certain spaces, or making dismissive comments about our communities. These are things that seem minor in isolation but, over time, wear away at one’s sense of identity and belonging.
In Little Moons, Tom’s character reflects a type of racism that is structural in nature, shaped by systems of privilege that can go unexamined by those who benefit from them. Even passive behaviours, like talking over someone or making assumptions about their capabilities, can perpetuate harmful stereotypes. These are behaviours that might not seem harmful to those enacting them, but they stem from deeply rooted biases that exist in our institutions and daily interactions.
By including characters like Tom, I hope to shed light on these more insidious forms of racism. They aren’t always easy to pinpoint, but they are just as damaging. Recognizing and challenging them requires a willingness to listen and reflect on one’s own actions and thoughts, which is an important step for anyone looking to better understand and address structural inequities.
CBY: I think it was a very effective portrayal, and I appreciate you unpacking your intent a bit further for our readers. This graphic novel further centers on a structural blindspot that has proven a feature, not a bug, of colonial and neo-colonial governance systems across North America (and in many locales globally where indigenous communities have been marginalized) since Europeans sailed around the world and started making intractable messes in other people’s backyards. Statistics show the intersectional vulnerabilities to violence brought through gender and ethnicity-related marginalization have yet to be resolved. Little Moons sheds light on this issue, but without governance reform and civil society recognition, these structural weaknesses shall persist. How best can we connect this story to action in our daily lives to ensure stories like Little Moons no longer reflect the truth of lived experience?
JS: That’s a powerful and complex question. Little Moons is one of many stories highlighting the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, reflecting the systemic barriers and violence rooted in colonialism. To turn awareness into action, we must prioritize accountability and support Indigenous-led initiatives that focus on justice, healthcare, and community safety.
On a personal level, we can educate ourselves about the histories of our lands, advocate for Indigenous voices in decision-making, and confront biases in our daily lives. Simple actions—supporting local Indigenous organizations, calling out discriminatory practices, and amplifying Indigenous voices—can contribute to larger systemic change.
Ultimately, addressing these issues requires sustained commitment and ongoing conversations, not just when stories like Little Moons are highlighted. With collective awareness and genuine support, we can work towards a future where the realities of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls are no longer commonplace but rather part of a history we’ve learned from and aim to change.
CBY: Good pieces of guidance for our audience to build upon in their actions going forward! We always close with an opportunity for creators to share what they’ve been enjoying or inspired by across comics, film, music, literature, and other art forms completely unrelated to Little Moons. What has caught your attention lately that our readers should check out after they give your comic a read?
JS: My favourite books to read are the early works of Chuck Palahniuk, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, and anything by Gillian Flynn—I love stories that explore the darker aspects of human nature and the complexity of relationships. Their work is compelling, and they each bring such unique perspectives and styles that speak to me. You can find them all online or in bookstores. In terms of art, I’ve been really inspired by Cam Rackam, Tsista Kennedy, Blake Angecomb, and Nathan Monias. You can find them all on Instagram, where they’re sharing incredible pieces that blend contemporary themes with cultural and personal narratives. I highly recommend checking them out if you’re looking for powerful, thought-provoking art.
CBY: Jen, thanks for the recommendations, and it has been an honor to have you join us today. If you’ve got any portfolio, publication, or social media links you’d like our readers to check out, now is the time to share!
JS: Thank you for having me! You can find my work on my Amazon author page here: Amazon Author Page, which lists all my graphic novels published with Highwater Press. I'm also active on Instagram, where you can follow me at @jenstorm. I think I have an X account floating around with the same handle as well, but I primarily share updates and insights on Instagram. Thank you for your support!
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